August Queer Romance Club - The Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd
I enjoyed it well enough, which is a ringing endorsement given it’s the first contemporary I’ve got through since I-don’t-know-when.
Minor spoilers to follow.
I got off to a rocky start because I didn’t warm to Jillian at all and found it unrealistic that Mattie would be in a raging argument, feeling attraction; I also found the idea of teachers arguing in the hallways unprofessional, and the whiplash from eg bitter arguing to almost-phone-sex too much.
I know that spicy enemies-to-lovers vibe works for many. But I live in a small town with a couple of middle-aged people who think they’re hot shit because they were treated as superstar athletes in their youth and — no, just NO to it being sexy. I didn’t dislike Jillian because of behaviour I would have liked in a man, BTW; if this was a m/f I would have noped out in the first chapter. (Note all of Jillian’s behaviour is explained by the end, though)
Luckily the reason for its Lammy shortlisting was quickly apparent: it is tackling the issue of LGBTQ+ people subject to an employment “morality clause” and how that impacts teachers and students. It’s a shame the blurb for this book is so generic, because I would have been a lot more interested from the start if that had been alluded to. Even relatively secular Australia has problems with “private” religious schools that receive more government funding than public schools justifying firing gay teachers at will.
It keeps its focus narrow; I did expect some sort of conflict with parents around students coming out, but it was purely teacher vs admin. I enjoyed how it all fell out, including realistic notes that there wasn’t some magical conversion to blanket acceptance. So many contemporaries want to ignore the very real prejudice LGBTQ+ people still experience. I appreciate that this didn’t, while still showing smaller victories.
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