Young adult memoirs are a fickle and difficult genre. It's kind of niche, and YA in general is subject to what adults think teens want, not what teens actually want. (Not that I know what teens want, either, but I can postulate about some things they might not want.) I think for the most part, Johnson recalls being a teen better than most adults, and he's franker with teens than most adults are willing to be. I respect this honesty and directness from him, I like that All Boys Aren't Blue tackles CSA, sexuality, gender, abuse, racism, homophobia, death, and toxic masculinity without shying away from them, and with empathy and nuance without making excuses for abusers. At times, he does come off a little stiff and lecturey, but he's above average for the genre. And his anecdotes are well-chosen and well-connected.

I'm glad this book exists, but it does have some problems.

I'm not a big fan of his writing style. It's a bit too "tell, not show" at times for me. This tends to be the hallmark of YA prose lately, and I have to admit I've never been a fan of YA writing besides some outliers, so maybe it's just my preference.

Still, I was often thinking as I was reading, "Instead of telling me queer people are oppressed, please show me." (I'm saying this as a queer person myself.) The examples he gave, such as Chapter 11, are harrowing...but they are actually few and far between. Instead, there seems to be a lack of focus, especially in the first half. I found myself wishing I was reading something more akin to "Heavy" by Kiese Laymon instead.

But my biggest issue with this book is Chapter 11--not that he included it, but that he mishandled it. I do not at all agree with how he wrote that chapter. Instead of front-loading his experience with sexual assault as, you know, a bad thing, he used language that at first made it seem somewhat ambiguous as to whether what he experienced was actually assault! I came close to closing the book, thinking, "Oh my god, is this guy actually framing this experience as an acceptable or even good thing that happened to him??" Thankfully, he put in a paragraph after the account saying that what happened to him was assault, but it came way too late. I understand he was trying to disown the trauma's hold on his life, but in my opinion, you can do that *while also* framing that experience from the beginning as an assault. It was careless, subpar writing.

The second half of the book was significantly more polished and focused.

i’ve decided to stop giving memoirs a star rating, but i do have some thoughts on this one. i think it is generally well written and telling extremely important stories about topics that people are often too afraid to discuss. however, in my opinion, the phrasing of the content warnings downplayed the graphic nature of some of the discussions had in this book- specifically surrounding sexual assault. the way it was worded to me implied that there would be discussion of the topic and its effects, but not graphic depictions like there were. as a result i did have to skip portions of the book, and generally found myself on edge for the remainder of the read.

this isn’t to say that i think that chapter (chapter 11: boys will be boys) shouldn’t be in the book. i think it is an important part of the author's story, and is a conversation that more people need to be willing to have. i just wish that there was more care taken in the phrasing of the content warnings so that readers, myself included, would know what to expect and be able to protect our mental health. 

This book was fine. I appreciated that I got a Black queer perspective, but I don’t think the book was meant for me because not much resonated. 

It's really fascinating how the black queer experience seems to be no matter what the circumstances. This isn't the first Black Queer Memoir I've read and probably won't be the last. But something that is fascinating is how captivating these stories are despite the similarities. Crazy to think this has been banned in schools? As Black Queer people get little to no guidance in life. Anyways I enjoyed this a lot..kind of moved

This book is so important to read. I am kind of shocked that it’s the most  banned book in the US. It’s the author’s experience with Childhood sexual assault, relationships with their grandmother and other family members, and experience bottoming for their first time. It was not a good experience and they warn that they wrote about their first encounter with gay sex because they wanted young queer folks to hear about the experience from someone who didn’t like it at first. It is a beautiful reference to the incredible story of Moonlight. Where Juan teaches Chiron how to swim and how they based the title on that quote. It’s such a good read!

Loved this so much. Really awesome memoir