Audiobook Review: Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Crushed on by , on March 3, 2018, in Reviews / 0 Comments

Audiobook Review: Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Finally got a chance to listen to the duo’s latest YA book, Autoboyography and let me tell you, they didn’t disappoint me at all. Check out my spoiler-free review below!

autoboyographyAutoboyography by Christina Lauren

Category: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publication: September 12th, 2017; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Purchase: Amazon, TBD

Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community.

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

 

Review:

[book rating=5.0/5.0]

I’ve been a fan of the Christina Lauren duo way before they became published authors. I’ve been loving their stories since the beginning and it’s not unlike with Autoboyography either.

Tanner and his family moved from sunny California to the mountains of Utah, in the smack middle of a Mormon community. Being a non-believer there has its disadvantages but Tanner still has a normal life. He has friends, family, he’s doing fairly good at school. Then he signs up for a novel writing class and his life won’t be the same anymore. This year, the TA is a former student named Sebastian. Sebastian just scored a deal on his book, that he wrote during the same class a year before. Although that’s not the most exciting thing for Tanner in the class. That would be the way Sebastian looks at him and treats him. But Sebastian is from a prominent LDS family, so what kind of future do they look forward to?

Autoboyography is the first book in a long while where I could almost 100% relate to the main character, Tanner. Of course ,he is not perfect; he does have his prejudices and does some stupid sh*t. Yet, he was funny, loving and a great main character. Although Tanner identified as bisexual, to me, he sounded more pansexual to me. It is the way he talks about how it’s the person and not the gender he’s attracted to. And that’s the main reason I could identify with him so much.

I also loved the love interest, Sebastian. Although I love getting into all the main characters’ head during a book, it was different here. During his chapters, it was really hard to read/hear about Sebastian’s internalized homophobia. His parents don’t make the matter easier, with their not so positive opinions about LGBTQIAP+ people. But I was really happy he could find peace within himself while keeping his faith.

I can’t really talk about the mormon representation in this book as I am not one and don’t practice any religion, but it was nice to read about how they’re a tight knit group who help wherever and whenever they can. The only objection I have is their views on LGBTQIAP+ people, which again, I don’t know how accurate is in real life. I hope even if it’s not that widely accepted yet, that the upcoming generations will be more open and accepting to anyone.

I listened to the audiobook of Autoboyography and I usually don’t like male narrators, but I grew fond of the one who narrated Tanner. His voice was often soothing. The one who did Sebastian I wasn’t really a fan of. His voice was way deeper than I imagined Sebastian’s but he only read a couple chapters out of the book.

All in all, I’m very happy that this got to be my first read of the year. I hope this sets a bar for all the upcoming books I’m going to read.

Trigger warnings for internalized homophobia and some negative talk about gay people.

 

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