We chat wh David Vals, whose upg YA novel Sp Me Right Round is a fun twist on the inic movie Back to the Future, starrg a gay Latx teen wh a lot of heart and even more pizazz!
Contents:
SP ME RIGHT ROUND – A QUEER YA TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE, WHERE LUIS, SUPER OUT AND GAY 2020S, TRAVELS BACK TIME TO THE CLOSETED 1980S WHERE HE MAY JT HAVE BROKEN UP HIS PARENTS’ RELATNSHIP… BEFORE HE GETS THE CHANCE TO BE BORN.
* spin right round gay *
And this light hand, for SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND, actually works, bee the thor manag to get his pot across and he do so a way that feels temporally acceptable, if not necsarily plot revolv around a flamboyantly gay boy named Luis who is gog to a Christian school. It's pretty progrsive for a Christian school but still don't allow gay kids to go to the dance as upl and Luis is mpaigng hard agast that, bee he wants to attend wh his boyiend, Cheng.
Especially sce, back the 1980s a young gay Black man named Chaz died at the school and basilly beme a utnary tale that the teachers cid to e as a fallback for their gsied up "don't ask, don't tell", after a failed attempt at subterfuge volvg the prom v (whoops, did I fot to add pronouns to the v, th creatg a legal loophole? Sce his personaly is big and brash, he cis to jt be his bt gay self while hangg out wh the ge crowd at this school, which clus HIS MOM(!
It's also a clever subversn of the bury-your-gays trope.
Stream You Sp Me Right Round Tmp 'GAY' Remix by AirHornRemix on sktop and mobile. Play over 320 ln tracks for ee on SoundCloud. * spin right round gay *
5 starslgbtqia-library poc-terracial ya-ya-land3, 185 reviews852 followersOctober 9, 2021Rep: Cuban Amerin gay mc, Che Amerin gay li, nonbary si character, Thai Amerin si character, Indian Amerin si character, Black si character, Cuban Amerin si charactersCWs: homophobia, teacher-stunt relatnship, homophobic vlenceachillean aoc-et-al dystopia-sci-fi 200 reviews65 followersJuly 29, 2023Okay, so there’s been an unrlyg msage YA L I’ve read croppg up recently that the ultimate form of liberatn for queer folk is g out. So when the bulk of a novel is the MC not so subtly tryg to nvce another character to be out and proud a highly relig school, the 80’s, where he is already harassed for beg prumed gay, I wonr whether the thor missed the thread somewhere along the way. A gay, YA twist on.
And while his mother is fully supportive of his beg gay, she worri about him makg a big issue of this at school bee when she was a stunt there, Chaz, a gay classmate, was found ad on the night of the the stunt-body print and a favore of many of the faculty, Luis thks he might be able to fd a way to trick the school to allowg same-sex upl to go to prom. The amount of tryg to throw slang and media referenc ma me MC is so annoyg I uldn’t stand readg his perspectiveThe ncln felt lazy, like oh everythg is perfect now and homophobia is ad HURRAYReally?