Ziggy, Stardust and Me

Posted on 11 June 2019 by James Brandon

The year is 1973 The Watergate hearings are in full swing The Vietnam War is still raging And homosexuality is still officially considered a mental illness In the midst of these trying times is sixteen year old Jonathan Collins, a bullied, anxious, asthmatic kid, who aside from an alcoholic father and his sympathetic neighbor and friend Starla, is completely alone To cope, Jonathan escapes to the safe haven of his imagination, where his hero David Bowie s Ziggy Stardust and dead relatives, including his mother, guide him through the rough terrain of his life In his alternate reality, Jonathan can be anything a superhero, an astronaut, Ziggy Stardust, himself, or completely normal and not a boy who likes other boys When he completes his treatments, he will be normal at least he hopes But before that can happen, Web stumbles into his life Web is everything Jonathan wishes he could be fearless, fearsome and, most importantly, not ashamed of being gay.Jonathan doesn t want to like brooding Web, who has secrets all his own Jonathan wants nothing than to be fixed once and for all But he s drawn to Web anyway Web is the first person in the real world to see Jonathan completely and think he s perfect Web is a kind of escape Jonathan has never known For the first time in his life, he may finally feel free enough to love and accept himself as he is.A poignant coming of age tale, Ziggy, Stardust and Me heralds the arrival of a stunning and important new voice in YA. Best Download Ziggy, Stardust and Me [ author ] James Brandon [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr you can t cure sadness by addingqueer historical fiction to your TBR but it sure is a nice thing to do while sufferingThis is one of those It s not you, it s me cases At the 100 page mark I still wasn t feeling it Couldn t really connect with the characters, the dialogues didn t catch me, the writing style and especially the way the characters talked nagged ...the rise of nerdy queer historical fiction that isn t just meant to depress you is of 10 10 importance to meHonestly and thoroughly gut wrenching My heart is in tatters right now I do confess I didn t read the blurb properly so I wasn t prepared for it to feature conversion therapy and I just felt sick to the stomach at the horror of it We literally read Jonathan breaking apart he is being broken and destroyed by this therapy to make him better and it s so infuriating I was right with Web and wanting to smash something.It had a really disjointed and ragged style but that FIT with Honestly and ...Please don t waste another breath being anything else There s just no time Not to be dramatic but this book comes out on my birthday and if that s not a sign I don t know what isCan I please just have alllll the LGBTQ historical novels There s really something special about them, and this one was no different in that sense.This is actually a very heavy novel, and it s really violent at times But it s also such an important novel, about a boy dealing with and trying to overcome internalized homophobia in a time where homosexuality was still seen as a mental illness At the start of the book, he genuinely believes he s sick, and then he starts to grow as a character, Can I please just have alllll the LGBTQ historical novels There s really something special about them, and this one was no different in that sense.This is actually a very heavy novel, and it s really violent at times But it s also such an important novel, about a boy dealing with and trying to overcome internalized homophobia in a time where homosexuality was still seen as a mental illness At the start of the book, he genuinely believes he s sick, and then he starts to grow as a character, which I thought was so well done.Jonathan is in no way a perfect character He s flawed, he makes mistak...Runs around the streets chucking this book at every human in sight is crying JUST READ IT I m just Words Nah this review is going to be strictly me gushing incoherently This book needs some attention RIGHT NOW because I m not seeing anYONE TALKING ABOUT IT AND ITS PERFECT I swear to god the next time someone says something like being gay is unnatural and the pe...not a fan of david bowie but i mean this is a queer book that takes place in the 70s,,, how could i say noThis is going to hurt isn t it

English
11 June 2019

James Brandon