Boyfriends with Girlfriends

by Alex Sanchez

Lance has always known he was gay, but he's never had a real boyfriend. Sergio is bisexual, but his only real relationship was with a girl. When the two of them meet, they have an instant connection--but will it be enough to overcome their differences?

Allie's been in a relationship with a guy for the last two years--but when she meets Kimiko, she can't get her out of her mind. Does this mean she's gay? Does it mean she's bi? Kimiko, falling hard for Allie, and finding it impossible to believe that a gorgeous girl like Allie would be into her, is willing to stick around and help Allie figure it out.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends is Alex Sanchez at his best, writing with a sensitive hand to portray four very real teens striving to find their places in the world--and with each other.

Genres: LGBT, Young Adult, Romance, Queer, Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction

217 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2011

About the author

Alex Sanchez is the author of the Rainbow Boys trilogy of teen novels, along with The God Box, Getting It, and the Lambda Award-winning middle-grade novel So Hard to Say. His novel, Bait, won the Florida Book Award Gold Medal for YA fiction. Alex received his master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Old Dominion University and for many years worked as a youth and family counselor. His newest book is a graphic novel from DC Comics, You Brought Me the Ocean. Find out more about Alex at www.AlexSanchez.com

Reviews

[Morgan F · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I did not completely finish Boyfriends with Girlfriends. I read the first 80 pages, then decided I did not want to spend any more time on it. I skimmed, and it doesn't appear I would have benefitted much from finishing it.

I've never read a book by Alex Sanchez, even though I have heard of Rainbow Boys and all the hype that surrounds it. When I got a free copy of this from Simon & Schuster's Galleygrab, I thought I would test the waters before borrowing his other books from the library.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends is about four teenagers, two sets of best friends coming to terms with their sexuality. Lance is a virginal out-of-the closet gay, who is looking for his first real boyfriend; Allie, Lance's best friend, who is restless with her relationship with her boyfriend, and is maybeperhaps interested in girls; Sergio, a bisexual guy struggling to get over his ex-girlfriend; and Kimiko, Sergio's cross-dressing best friend who is developing a serious crush on Allie.

This novel, although I admire it for embracing topics most YA don't even touch, is spectacularly heavy-handed. From the first page the reader is bombarded with gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual in a way that was incredibly awkward. Not because I am awkward around the topic of homosexuality, but just because it was treated in a way that I felt wasn't genuine. Have any of you ever seen The Secret Life of the American Teenager and cringe over the complete illegitimacy? That's kind of what is was like for me. In this novel these teenagers do nothing except discuss their sexuality. Nothing. The book was 99% dialogue which consisted of mostly: "Do you think I'm bisexual?" "Do you believe in bisexuality?" "Does so-and-so like me?" "Should I go out with so-and-so?" "Should I break up with so-and-so?" It was annoying and boring. I would have enjoyed it more if there was more to the story than that.

But this might just be me. I am a heterosexual girl and I've never been anything but heterosexual. Perhaps gay or questioning teenagers really do spend hours discussing their sexuality on end. I don't think so, but I honestly can't attest to it. It just seems kind of hypocritical to me. Many of the problems that my gay or bisexual friends face are not routed in homophobia, but being judged and defined by which gender they are attracted to. These kids in the book are so eager to define themselves, at least in the beginning anyway. Why? Isn't it more important to just like who you like? Keep in mind that I did not finish this book entirely, so maybe that message was in there.

Another thing that really bothered me was the writing style. I already mentioned before that the book was nearly all dialogue, with very little time being devoted to setting or exposition. Also, the point of view was positively rogue. It would leap from place to place, from character to character, sometimes in a single paragraph. It sometimes got a little confusing.

But overall, it was very quick read. I'm sure there will be people who shall love this book's frankness, and there will be those who absolutely relate to a character. This book was not for me, but that doesn't mean I shall discourage anyone from reading it. I recommend trying it. Perhaps it will give insight or perspective.

Oh, and the last scene of the book was a same-sex couple kissing under a rainbow kite. ROFL. I honestly don't know whether that was meant to be cheeky or not.

And people high-five too much in this book.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

initial thoughts: what....did....i....just.....read
-a gay guy who refuses to believe bi people exist (lol im sorry but what...)
-"SUPER!!" "SUP DUDE" "COOL" "YEE-HAH" 102828282x per chapter
-bad characters & bad plot
-i cant even talk about what i didnt like vaguely because ill go into rant mode and just spew about everything i didnt like about this book lol

[Kat (Lost in Neverland) · Rating 4 out of 5]

ETHNICALLY AND SEXUALLY DIVERSE YA BOOK??? WITH GAY GIRLS AS WELL AS GAY GUYS??? AND BISEXUALS??? AND NOT EVERY CHARACTER IS WHITE??



MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.

Sort of.

Lance is gay. Allie is straight, but questioning. Sergio is bisexual, and Kimiko is a self-proclaimed butch lesbian.

Lance likes Sergio, but doesn't believe in bisexuality ("But you're attracted to guys, right? Doesn't that make you gay? Why not just come out? Stop hiding!"). Sergio likes Lance, but doesn't like how his identity is being erased, and is not ready for a relationship.
Allie realizes she's fallen out of love with her 2 year boyfriend, and starts questioning her sexuality after having a girl on girl dream that made her feel more alive than ever. Then she meets boyish Kimiko, openly gay and instantly attracted to Allie, but Allie doesn't know what she wants yet.

This is a story of teen sexuality and identity.

I loved the diversity in both ethnic and sexual regards. However, the writing is very difficult to get into. It's choppy and slow, and the storyline extremely repetitive.
Lance and Allie are best friends and whenever something happens between their love interests, they have to call each other and explain it all and debate about it.
Sergio and Kimiko do the exact same thing. Sometimes their tones and voices even blend together and I forget who we're talking about.

The book is also primarily dialogue, and there's little else covered in the story besides their relationships, which can get extremely boring.

However, I'm giving this four stars, because I want to see more books like this, and more characters that are diverse and honest. This is very hard to find with YA books, what with sex being the 'be all, end all', and most LGBT characters are shoved to the side so the straight, usually white main characters can shine.

If you can muscle through the tedious writing style, it's really a good book about understanding differences and the ever confusing and passionate life of teenagers trying to find out who they are in this world.

[Dahlia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book sort of read like a screenplay for "How to be LGBTQ" as I imagine PBS would've put on in the 80s. On the one hand, I love that it's really all-encompassing, with L,G,B, and Q characters and a discussion of T. On the other hand, I felt like this book deserved better writing, better follow-through on the storylines...better everything. I wanted this to be a better book so, so badly.

While I found the storyline between Sergio and Lance merely frustrating - when one of you is ragingly biphobic, and the other's bisexual, and you're going to feel the need to be together anyway, at least dig up some chemistry from somewhere, will you? - I did actually adore the budding relationship between Allie and Kimiko. (This is, of course, ignoring the way Allie fetishized the crap out of Kimiko's being Japanese.) I loved that Allie remained "Questioning" from beginning to end, something we rarely see in books, and I wish it would've played out longer into her getting to explore how she felt being in a relationship with a girl without being certain she was bisexual. The same way she feels in the book as if the girls' love manga she reads is disappointingly lacking in sexuality beyond kissing, I felt here - what happens beyond the first kiss point when you're questioning your sexuality and get confronted in it with a way you never could've been when you were strictly heterosexual? Seeing Allie only graze the tip of the iceberg made the book feel way too underdeveloped, though I was more than happy to be finished with Lance and Sergio by the end.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is, frankly...

It's embarrassing that this is what we have to represent the lgbtqia+ community and its shameful that this is what we have to offer teens who want bi or qpoc representation in a genre overly full of gay cis white dudes.

First of all, I want to point out that whoever let this book get published obviously forgot what good writing is, blinded by their excitement for some material. The writing is dull, and, frankly, boring. Aside from that, the slang used is written so obviously by an outsider looking in adult perspective that it's insulting.

"boyishly fist-bumped" is an actual quote from the book, less than 50 pages in, to give you an idea of the forward thinking, totally revolutionary stuff here. (As in, I'm gagging on the fact that we can literally GENDER how someone fist bumps.)

Which, on that topic, lets figure out the characters. Sergio, bi. He's bi, guys. He's bi, and he's Mexican. This is important.

He is literally described as "cafe latte skinned" in the first five pages. Pretty sure that's a literary no-no dude, stop giving your poc characters food for skin. Embarrassing.

Then, we have Lance, who is biphobic and really annoying. The fact that Sergio even gives him the time of day is sad. And unrealistic.

Onto the girls now!

Allie, who is your average femme who's also a weeb, and is "straight but bi-curious"

And Kimiko, who is butch. (She's not crossdressing. somehow people come to this conclusion, my advice to you: stop.) Kimiko also has the unfortunate reality of being a Japanese girl written by someone who has no idea what they're doing, and as such she happily humours a billion conversations about Japanese pop culture, because OBVIOUSLY she just LOVES Naruto, sushi, hello kitty, and Dragon Ball Z. She's Japanese, GOD. Why WOULDN'T SHE?

Yes, yes, and I'm Canadian. The only things I like are maple syrup, the NHL, and Degrassi.

Oh, wait, that makes no sense. Huh.

The author also did the minimal amount of research required to talk about weeb culture, because the fact that Hello Kitty and DBZ were on that list and not Sailor Moon, well. (This is a sign someone used Google and personal experience as their primary source material guys.)

I feel the need to keep talking about this, because, admittedly, I like anime!! I like this stuff. I know what I'm talking about. I know Japanese people GENERALLY think you're a loser if you come up to them to rant about anime. I would too, because it's annoying, and you're also probably a loser if you do that.

But, that said, there's a point where to allude somehow to Allie's heterosexuality, she says she likes "shonen-ai" and Kimiko replies with "shojo-ai" and for ref, that means boy's love and girl's love. Manga, anime, stuff where the plotline involves romance between two guys or two girls, respectively. That's cool, except, if you know ANYBODY in your life who enjoys this stuff you'd know people generally use the terms "yaoi" and "yuri" respectively, which is the more explicit terms for shonen/shojo-ai, but also the more popular ones.

As in, once again, author did absolutely NO research before writing this book beyond Google and probably doesn't even know what a teenager actually sounds like.

I'm not done this book, but I regret knowing I have to finish it. As it is now, it's not looking up. It's bland, annoying, and blatantly representative of a queer community that refuses to be good at representation.

Come find me when someone writes the book about the non-binary panromantic demisexual chubby girl with the poc transwoman asexual polyromantic girlfriend please. (Or maybe I'll just do it myself.)

[Alienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Happy as I am to see a book concerning teen bisexuality on the shelves, I can't bring myself to give BWG a higher rating.

I've read many of Alex Sanchez's books before and was therefore surprised at how uncharacteristically bad the writing was. The point of view jumped between the four main characters constantly, sometimes twice in the space of one paragraph. The characters also seemed kind of flat, to be honest; they never really felt three-dimensional to me and I never quite related to any of them.

All in all, BWG is a quick read and addresses a topic that doesn't seem to get discussed much in teen lit, but it's not a very well executed book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though we are in the middle of Queer YA explosion, bisexual teens are rarely the stars of the show. This book, about the complex relationships of love and friendship between four teens (one gay, one lesbian, one bisexual, and one straight) is a great read. It brings creativity as the straight girl wonders if she is bi and the bi guy tries to beat the insecurity of his gay boyfriend. It captures the pace of high school life dead on and manages to nail the romance between the two pairs of couples without ever becoming too preachy or too much about coming out. It's the book I wished would have existed when I was 16.

My further review can be found at bisexual-books.tumblr.com

[Janani(ஜனனி)⁷ · Rating 2 out of 5]

UGH. THIS IS TOO MUCH TO TAKE IN. Ah! man. The book is about four whiny teenagers who are stuck up with their feelings they couldn't be sure of it. I was damn tired to read about their pining, insecurities and everything in between.

Let me try to list out few things which I really liked:

1. It shows how people are still not sure whether there is bisexuality. Of course there is. When you believe there are gays and lesbians, then why in the name of hell don't you believe in bis? The chance of bis in this world is equal to the chance of gays/straights in the world. So this dude was stuck up with the thought of there is no such thing as bi. It is a strategy to cover up the fact that they're gay. Yeah, I know. It's irritating. But later on he understands.

2. When you have a go-to friend with whom you can share everything. AND when they accept who you are. AND when they wring your head when you try to change yourself for someone.

3. Family will always be with you no matter how screwed up you are. If you do something that you're not supposed to do, of course they would be mad at you. But they always understand and be with you and your screwed up decisions.

I think I finished my oh-i-like-these-things list. I was so sad that there was not much of a plot to ponder over. And, the whining. I just can't fathom it seriously. It was neither too bad nor too good.

[Lily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf at 47%

I...I just really don't know where to start. This book was a trainwreck. The only reason I even made it this far was because I shared my thoughts with friends and it was hilarious for a time.

But it was just a really insulting, painful, supremely badly written book. Exactly 0 research has gone into creating this. The author has obviously never talked to teenagers. Or gay people. Or women. Or humans. I've never read such an awful book.

Lemme sum up some of the things that turned me off this book:

- Four main characters, could not distinguish between any of them.

- One of the main characters is unbelievably biphobic.

- The guy who's supposed to become his boyfriend is bi.

- No one makes that big a deal of the fact that Lance is biphobic.

- Kimiko is Japanese, a fact that is repeated every other page.

- Her culture is fethisized by a white chick.

- Who is a "girlie-girl", a fact that is also peppered in constantly.

- Kimiko is a butch lesbian. It is repeatedly asked if she is trans.

- Lance repeatedly tries to force people out of the closet.

- Did I mention he "doesn't believe bi people exists and believes that it is a cop-out"?

- The writing is so terribly awful.

- POV changes mid-sentence.

- 'Young person vernacular' which doesn't fit any young person I have ever heard speak. Wtf is "treat for eats"?

- None of the characters had personalities other than 'gay', 'bi', 'butch Japanese lesbian' and 'girlie-girl'

- We never go deeper into what Allie is questioning about. At the end of the book she "may be" bi, but it's never explained further (which in and of itself is not bad, but in context of the book it's very lazy writing).

- Hey, also all the side characters are either extremely homophobic, biphobic (or both), sexist or the stereotypical white man who gets off on bisexual women because THREESOME.

- This book lives and breathes stereotypes.

- It's just a very awful book don't ever read it.

This is the kind of book we as a community have to represent us. I feel insulted and violated.

[Thorn MotherIssues · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like a book that's about bi identity issues in teens and I'm glad that this one is out there, but I'd still recommend Sara Ryan's books if someone wanted a good story that covered some of the same ground. This was just too talky, too preachy, and while it's good that not all the characters were white, the white characters never had to consider their privilege and the Japanese-American girl Kimiko even found the creepy culture-based fascination the white girl Allie had with her flattering. I just kept hoping there'd be more eye-opening going on and there wasn't, except about how people can be bi and how actually talking to each other is important if you're trying to make a relationship get off the ground. I totally agree with those points, really, but I'd like a book with more.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets two stars for trying to have a healthy discussion and representation about coming out, questioning your sexuality, gender, and bisexual men and women. It also gets two stars for diversity and demonstrating different family reactions to being LGBTQIA+. I will give it that much credit. But dear GOD is the execution of the main storyline and sexuality/gender discussion a huge failure, at least in my opinion. Halfway through the book I was rooting for neither couple to get together because the grounds for their relationships were so shaky and superficial. Sergio and Lance, the bisexual Hispanic guy and the gay white guy, don't have a lot of chemistry, in my opinion. All of their discussion centers around Lance not understanding Sergio's bisexuality, and Sergio's unwillingness to commit. Instead of fully dealing with these issues and actually discussing them, we see each character settle for a grey area kind of compromise in order to continue dating one another. In regards to Kimiko and Allie, their friendship initially is solely due to Kimiko thinking Allie is hot and Allie being so into Japanese culture that it is a borderline fetish. After reading that part, I was definitely not rooting for them. I didn't understand why Allie needed to be in a relationship and then break it off in order to discover her sexuality. Why couldn't she be single and liked Kimiko because of an actual emotional attachment? Here's the main problem with this book: it brings up important discussions about sexuality, gender, family, etc, but wraps these topics in casings of blatant fetishization, lackluster explanation and story development, one dimensional character progression, and no real story arc to support the discussion. This book beats the reader over the head with trying to make bisexuality a legitimate sexuality (which it is, by the way), but then uses many stereotypes regarding bisexual people to support this discussion (afraid of commitment, extremely sexually active, etc). I didn't want Lance to end up with Sergio. I wanted Lance to educate his gay virgin one track mind, gain some fucking life experience, and then come back to Sergio. I wanted Sergio to actual deal with and confront the reason behind his lack of desire to commit, and then decide to commit to Lance. I wanted Kimiko and Allie to develop a friendship based on common interests, not one person's fetishization of the other person's culture. I wanted this book's message to not be swallowed in stereotypes and cheesy dialogue.

[Serith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sorry. I tried. I really, really did.

Great topic. Poorly executed.

Problem was this felt more like a textbook example used to educate students in a GSSA more than an actual story. I never got a real grasp on the setting or emotions behind the things being said and done. There wasn’t much to immerse into and it just gave the message a lectured aftertaste.

And I hated the main character (er, well one of the four - there is a lot of head hopping). To put it simply; he was offensive. The only conflict I detected was all the negative assumptions about bisexuality. While I’m sure everything will be settled all nicely in the end, that can be a dull lesson for those who already are open-minded. The intro just made me mad and I never got a moment to care about their "happily ever after".

Speaking of being offended, I really wasn't sure what to make of all that "I love manga and everything Japanese, so I adore you and your family because you’re Asian". That is a bit... racist. Not in a "hate" way, but in an "I'm-making-judgments-based-on-your-background" way.

The overall writing voice was trying a little too hard to be cool. It ended up making me squirm like a teenager with a dad that says things like, "lol homies" while reaching for a fist bump. ...Okay, I don’t think they actually said that, but there were at least three fist bumps before I put it down.

Anyways, I'm glad there are books out there that tackle the misconceptions of bisexuality. And if there was more going on beyond that, I might have stuck through their soul searching journey... But it wasn't worth it to hear stuff I already know for an ending I can already foretell. Read in another review that it ends with the MCs kissing under a rainbow kite or something ultra stereotypical like that.

[farith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Okay. I liked it but I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
I think I should start by the characters (I don't know why I always complain about the characters lol). They were a little bit frustrating because they wanted something but they didn't do anything for what they want. The story is good and I liked the way it developed. The book was pretty cute in general and I had so much fun when I read it.
I liked the final because it was an open finale and I loved the way the autor ended the story and the characters. It was like a "happily ever after".
I recommend it if you are looking for something really light to read. This is perfect for read in one sitting.

[Vignesh Kumar · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars!

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

my friend read this book and sent me a couple quotes that were massive red flags.
we had a laugh for a time but now that it's been a couple hours I can't help thinking how ridiculously harmful this biphobic, sexist and insensitive pice could be to young audiences questioning who they are or who they like.

this book desregards an entire community that is often disrespected anyways. and if 20yo me has the mechanisms to filter this out of my life and understand that it's jus problematic and means nothing, there's a large amount of young people questioning that may not be able. and when you're 14/15 questioning your identity this can be so so damaging.

so pls, LGBT+ and allies, ban this book out of existence before it really fucks someone over. and Simon and Schuster PLEASE AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH get a better sensitive reading team, PLEASE

(I would like to stress that this book is from 2011 and Simon and Schuster might have improved their standards a lot since this book first saw the light of day so don't go rain hell on them without double checking if the situation improved or not)

[Ronald Limberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lance, Sergio, Kimiko, and Allie. Intelligent and vibrant teens in a contemporary American narrative swirling around skepticism, the swinging pendulum of love and hope, camaraderie, and beauty. This book is well-written, funny, deeply engrossing, and fun from the first page until the very memorable final page to this stellar work of young adult literature with palpable LGBTQ themes. It's quite an entertaining achievement. I loved how Alex Sanchez implied the obvious with the colorful use of symbolism to express what failed to easily escape the lips of the characters in the end. Brilliant book!

[Britta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know what to think about this book. On one hand, it deals with very real, difficult teenage issues. But on the other, nothing really happens other than discussions of sexuality. But I guess that is was some teenagers need to want, what they need to read. With that said, it was a really quick read and I was entertained.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends follows four main characters. Lance, openly gay; his best friend Allie, bi-curious; Lance, bisexual; and his best friend Kimiko, lesbian. So obviously there was a lot of sexuality, curiosity and challenges for all of them. Each one of them faces their own journey; whether it is figuring out who you really are, embracing yourself, dealing with past, present and future girlfriends/boyfriends, or something else completely. The interesting part is that although each character is facing his/her own, unique, choices and revelations, their stories intertwine, reminding the reader of how similar people really are.

In case this is not obvious - this is not a "clean" novel. There is alot of graphic sexual activities and discussions. It is definitely provocative, no secret there. That is not necessarily a bad thing, I just felt the need to make the reader aware because I was not expecting that aspect.

So what I liked... I was kind of expanding my horizons by reading this book. I am straight (which really shouldn't be important), but I wanted to be able to empathize with what some teens go through. I couldn't even fathom how it would be to have to prove yourself to people who don't understand after just struggling to figure out who you really are. Boyfriends with Girlfriends helped me to see and start to relate to a whole side of people and barriers that never applied to me. The book is very dialogue driven, which helped create a more personal feeling, making it a great exploration in many different ways.

But that is just a view for people who aren't gay (I hate to use labels, but there is really no getting around it here). I'm sure teenagers who are gay, trying to figure out their sexual orientation, or even adults who wish there was a book like this when they were young will really enjoy title. It is filled with those confusing, awkward, consuming emotions that play with your mind leaving you even more confused and exhausted.

But... I do have a few criticisms... this book doesn't just focus on LGBT relationships, but it is the only thing that happens. There really isn't much of a plot, it is really focused on the characters, not what they do. Some people like this, some don't. It really depends on you. Also, some dialogue was really, really awkward. I know that these situations would, realistically, be awkward. Maybe it is just me, but some lines didn't seem real.

So there was good and bad - but then again, I wasn't really the target audience. I'm sure many people will really love this novel. If you are like me, open and want to understand, give this book a shot. If the content in this book are issues you are dealing with, I'm sure this book will be helpful and enjoyable.

[Cai · Rating 1 out of 5]

Look, I wanted to like this book. In terms of representation, it ticks a bunch of boxes, and I was excited about the prospect of a story where multiple main characters are queer. The execution, however, was...bad.

Lance is biphobic and racist (he literally refers to Sergio as “spicy” within the first 5-10 pages—you know, because he’s Latino and that’s definitely an acceptable way to talk about a human being), and Allie has this exoticized view of Japan that Kimiko somehow finds flattering instead of super offensive. I can’t even remember what Allie and Kimiko’s friendship is built on, except them talking about manga/anime and Allie grilling Kimiko for information on Japan. (I don’t remember if Kimiko has ever even been to Japan, or if Allie just assumes that she’s an “expert” on the culture because she’s Japanese-American.)

I wanted to throw this book across the room in disgust/anger about ten pages in, but I kept reading because I thought the flawed (racist/biphobic) characters would eventually get schooled and it might turn out to be a not-totally-terrible book in the end. Spoiler alert! I was wrong. Lance spends most of the book trying to convince Sergio that he’s actually gay because there’s no such thing as bisexuality. The only thing that really changes is that he eventually decides that Sergio is probably telling the truth and bisexuality might be a real thing, even though he doesn’t understand how being bi is possible.

Look, I get that it’s realistic to include some casual racism in a book like this, especially when you have several white teenagers interacting with POC. But honestly, if you’re going to having one of your characters (especially a main character!) pulling racist nonsense, I feel like you have to have actual in-world effects and consequences. If you don’t, it kinda just makes it seem like this is fine, and I’d hate for any kid to walk away from this book think that they have to accept this kind of bullshit from a friend or significant other. Lance is extremely unlikeable, Allie is only slightly better. Throughout the book, I was periodically seized by the urge to take Sergio or Kimiko by the shoulders and tell them that they should love themselves, cut the cord, and stop putting up with these white kids’ nonsense. Sadly for all of us, they never did.

[Katthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

my second time reading this book, it was less than satisfactory. i can't really adequately describe my disappointment, but i can try.

It kind of hits you over the head with its message: BISEXUALITY IS REAL AND NOT EVERYBODY CAN NEATLY FIT INTO LABELS. Which in and of itself is adequate. i can tell that this book tried really hard to be a comprehensive work of fiction about bisexuality, but i just wasn't feeling it. first of all, it was written poorly. The characters were pretty two dimensional. i feel like they were based off of an arbitrary list of characteristics, with little to no back story, at all. the setting wasn't established, at all. like, there's the mall, the school, their houses, their cars, outside. and that's the extent of the description of setting. there was just no sense of place.

the dialogue was unrealistic, the plot absurd. The people i know who are my age don't talk like these people, anyone i hang out with doesn't act like they do. but maybe i'm too mature for my own good. i caught myself rolling my eyes, more than once.

it's like sanchez was trying really hard to be diverse, and like a 90's children's tv show, it was glaringly obvious. there's the hispanic, the asian, the white people. the bi, the lesbian, the gay, the bi-curious. the accepting parents, the don't ask don't tell parents, the pray the gay away parents, and the oblivious parents. Frankly, i don't even remember the white girl's parents at all, because they play no role in this book at all whatsoever. i wish they did.

i feel like it didn't discuss how difficult it is to come out as bi, just as difficult as coming out as gay. people don't understand, you can be ostracized by people within the LGBT community because "bisexuality is just a pit stop on the way to full-fledged gay" and people who think it exists are more likely to say that you shouldn't be with people of the same sex because you have a choice, and you can choose not to "sin" by exclusively dating people of the opposite sex.

if someone could recommend a book that comprehensively discusses THAT aspect of bisexuality in a way that's well written and realistic, that'd be great. but i haven't found it, and i basically assume i won't until i write it myself. which won't be for a while.

[Mad Scientist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Posted at http://madsteampunkery.com

Concoction of a review:
Alex Sanchez is the author. Suburbia is the place. Lance, Allie, Sergio and Kimiko are the teens. Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender is the genre. Mad Scientist is the reader.

This small group are maneuvering through high school while trying to figure out their sexual identities. The story starts to move along with best friend duos. Lance is on the swim team and very proud of being gay. Yes, he is way out of the closet. His best friend, Allie, has been in a long term relationship with her boyfriend and is starting to question their bond. Bisexual Sergio, just got out of a relationship with a girl and Kimiko is our part Japanese lesbian who hasn't had a real relationship. Oh la la...

Our first odd couple is Lance and Sergio. The relationship is on the edge of a rocky cliff from the start due to odd relationship baggage and different sexuality views. Lance believes that bisexuality is a cop out, yet he finds himself attracted to Sergio and learns more of the this type of sexuality.

Allie is a working out a way to talk to her intended on how she feels their relationship is lacking. Meanwhile, she meets Kimiko when she goes with Lance to meet Sergio on a mall date. The girls become friends immediately. However, Allie gets that weird feeling that maybe there is something deeper going on with her.

Alex Sanchez is not a writer for all. He hits a very hard subject which some will have a hard time digesting. His style of writing is unlike anything else. He has a rotating POV that changes within chapters and sometimes even within a conversation. If you do not pay attention reading this book I do believe you will look up and say "who just said that" to yourself. However, the Mad Scientist found herself liking this style. It proved to keep my wandering mind engaged on a heavy topic in a light way.

4.01 Blasts
There was a great multi cultural cast of characters who were exploring their sexuality in a cute awkward believable way.

[Rory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a huge fan of Alex Sanchez--I have read almost all his other books and usually find his characters to be either very sterotypical or moved more by the lesson he wants to teach than actual moments of personality. But when I heard that this book was about bisexuals and something not normally coverd in YA I decided to give it a shot.

I'm glad I did.

For me this was the best book of his I have ever read. I honestly cared about Allie, Lance, Sergio and Kimiko as characters each in their own way. Besides the obvious issues of sexuality; I found that each of them was concerned about other issues--sexual prowlness, lack of passion in relationships, the inabilty to commit after heartbreak and the idea of owning one's sexual despite one's culture or family. I found myself believing that these kids did exist one the early set up was out of the way and really rooted for each of them to move forward as people.

I also liked how the book handled not only the idea and feelings of being bisexual but also the problems that come with dating, within friendships and the use of lables. It was refreshing to see characters that were smart--but still very much teenages in what they say and do. It was possibly one of the best works from Mr. Sanchez thus far and I would love to meet these characters again.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wrote a paper for a grad class last summer on this book and Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher. My thesis was basically that LGBTQ young adult literature is expanding, but the focus is primarily on gay, lesbian, and/or questioning young adults. The B and T are largely ignored, and when they aren't ignored... well, the results aren't typically very good. This book was my example of how poorly bisexuality is portrayed in YA lit, because it is a problem. That's how it's presented throughout Sanchez's novel: Lance doesn't think bisexuality exists, so he must overcome his prejudice to be with Sergio, and Allie must determine whether or not she is actually bisexual before pursuing a relationship with Kimiko. And because Sanchez presents it as a "problem," Boyfriends with Girlfriends becomes a didactic, lazy presentation of a reductive worldview on what bisexual means... namely, according to Sanchez's own characters, any person who's not "super-straight" or "uber-homo." It may lay some ground for opening a discussion among the youngest of young adults, but I can't imagine any teenager (or adult, for that matter) reading this taking such triteness seriously.

[hala · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, Boyfriends with Girlfriends was a pretty decent read. There was just one major thing that severely lessened my enjoyment of the book and I am going to address that first.

Lance really bothered me. Initially, he is very biphobic and I hated him for it.

"My main worry is the bi thing....I guess that means he's still coming out" (3).

"I don't believe there really is such a thing as being bi...I just think that you're born gay or straight. One or the other" (64).

Thankfully, Sergio calls him out on it and Lance realizes he is wrong and does (for the most part) get over his biphobia. It would have been worse if it went unchecked, but I can't stand biphobia at all. Without his initial biphobia, Lance would have just been boring, but with it he was irritating.

But, I still really enjoyed this book, for the most part. I love Sergio, he's funny and relatable. And I adore the romance between Allie and Kimiko, it was very sweet. Kimiko on her own is a really cool character too.

Also, kudos for diversity! Aside from LGBT main characters (Kimiko is a lesbian, Lance is gay, Sergio is bisexual and Allie is questioning), Kimiko is Japanese-American. Awesome!

Overall, this wasn't anything particularly amazing but it was enjoyable for the most part.

[Lucien · Rating 2 out of 5]

I need to stop reading things just because they're queer. Surely there are better novels with actual bisexual representation than this. That said, I also need to stop reading straight people's reviews of queer novels because if I read one more top review that says a book is "hypocritical" because "the characters are focusing too much on gender" RIGHT AFTER THE REVIEWER DECLARES THAT THEY ARE STRAIGHT I'm gonna implode.

That said, my biggest issue with this book, beside it clearly being a very heavy-handed capital-I Issues book (which are just not for me because I'm too old to appreciate them now) is that gender is talked about in very binary and limiting terms constantly throughout the entire book.

[Menglong Youk · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, Let me say that this is the fifth book of Alex Sanchez's I've read so far. In each book, my rate isn't below 4 stars. His first and only Trilogy, Rainbow Boys, is in the sixth place of my all time favorite series. I love the way he made and described his characters; not boring, not complicated, but interesting, absorbing and wanting to get some more of the story. This book is basically about a complicated friendship of a lesbain and a straight girl who later discovered that she's bi, and relationships of a gay boy with a bi boy. It also shows us about the aftermath of coming out and how to deal with it. It's an interesting book. You should give it a shot.

[Cymone · Rating 1 out of 5]

MISS ME WITH THIS ENTIRE BULLSHIT BOOK.

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

In 2001, Alex Sanchez wrote Rainbow Boys. In 2003, he wrote Rainbow High. And in 2005, he wrote Rainbow Road. All three of these books I have read and enjoyed, featuring solid characters and plots and treating topics like bisexuality and HIV/AIDS with respect. Unfortunately, in 2011, he released Boyfriends with Girlfriends and undid all of that.

When Boyfriends with Girlfriends allows itself to be a young adult romance story, it's quite sweet, but it's overshadowed by a whole mess of problematic representation. The bisexual character, Sergio, has no defining traits beyond being bi and Mexican. Lance the gay likes show tunes and musicals, Allie the "straight" girl likes anime and manga, Kimiko the lesbian is into poetry. Sergio's sole trait is that he is bisexual. Not that it matters much as the story is paced so poorly and head-hops so often that none of the characters get any time to shine, you don't get a chance to connect to any of them and they end up feeling flat and shallow.

When the guys are together, they talk about sex and sexuality. When they're not talking about it, they're thinking about it. Their first conversation in the story was about which gender the bisexual prefers which was an attempt by the gay Lance to determine what Sergio's "true" sexuality is. On the second date, Sergio reflects on dating and thinks that two guys dating is like a competition about who can get into the other's pants faster. Two chapters after this, Chapter Eleven, Sergio and Lance get into each other’s pants. I mean, seriously?

I mentioned problematic representation, and there are three main ones. First, the bisexual Sergio has a fascination with sex over relationships, he mentions that people can be friends with benefits, he expresses his interest in possible threesomes, and also sees nothing wrong with open relationships. Ordinarily this would be fine except he is bisexual, and all Sanchez manages to do is push the idea that bisexual people are promiscuous. Although Sergio himself mentions a lot that he is happy being bisexual, through the viewpoint of Lance we see a gay character trying to decide why Sergio won't just commit to one gender, not one person but one gender. A reductive viewpoint.

The second problematic representation is the Japanese character and her family. It relies on the harmful stereotype that Japanese women and demure and delicate, which is at odds with the butch nature of Kimiko. This does get addressed and resolved later in the story, but I found myself uncomfortable with the fact that the Japanese kids do karate as a sport, and that the connection between Kimiko and Allie is formed over shounen-ai and shoujo-ai novels (both outdated terms now), and that the other characters refer to the reserved but stern mother of Kimiko as the “Dragon Lady”.

The third problematic representation which is just a brief part of the story is during the second date that the guys have. They go to an Ethiopian restaurant and are served by a waitress, who is the only black woman in the entire novel I might add (Darrell might be black too but honestly, I didn't care enough about him to notice). During the date, the gay couple eat injera and wat, in simple terms injera are flatbreads like pancakes and wat are thick stews. The author describes the food as being "baby food-like", and then a page later one of them as "sweet orange goop". Whenever the author mentions Mexican foods like churros, they're just churros, no demeaning terms for those but the Ethiopian food? That's goop for babies. For goodness’s sake.

Now, on to some more positive things. In the last ten percent of the book the conflict of the story switches from bisexuality to relationships. Instead of the characters worrying about being bisexual or dating a bisexual, they instead worry about if they can date someone at all. This greatly improves the quality of the book but it's so late in the story that it feels tacked on, the dating of the main couples seems rushed and serves to hurry along to a conclusion with little in terms of resolution.

And the final positive part of the story is the character Chip. He is Allie's boyfriend at the start. He doesn't care that Allie's best friend is gay, he also doesn't care that Allie herself might be bisexual. He is a sweet guy who has a soft side, and when Allie breaks up with him, he cries. He gave me stereotypical jock vibes in the beginning but every time I thought he would do something homophobic or whatever he did the opposite. The book should have been about him.

This book is an example of how not to write bisexual characters, and how not to write Japanese characters. If you want better stories with bisexual representation, read Openly Straight and Honestly Ben, both by Bill Konigsberg (though Honestly Ben has more bi content). Or read the charmingly adorable webcomic Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. Even reading Rainbow Boys, Sanchez's first book, would be better bi rep. Save yourself the trouble, skip this book and look for something better.

[Kate Stericker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm reluctant to criticize a book with such strong representation of bisexuality and racial diversity in the lgbtq+ community, but I was disappointed by Boyfriends with Girlfriends. The writing felt wooden and maintained an unwavering focus on the relationships of the four main characters throughout all 217 pages. It often felt as if the protagonists had nothing else happening in their lives and no thoughts that did not pertain directly to the three other characters--even some more general musings on their life experiences would have been appreciated. Additionally, the author's approach to POV was often disorienting. Sanchez has a habit of suddenly providing detailed insight into another character's mind during a scene that seemed 'grounded' in someone else's perspective. (This was particularly distracting when a character made a phone call and we were suddenly deluged with details about what the person they called was thinking and doing with their hands as they spoke.) In summary, I think that Boyfriends with Girlfriends could represent a great outline for a complicated four-person romance, but that plot would have to fit into a larger story with stronger writing to make it a truly satisfying read.

[Syd · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars. I would give this a 4 star butttttt since Lance didn’t believe in being “bi” that brought my rating down.

[Crysta Coburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like the bisexual version of "Annie on my Mind." (I'm old.) And I mean that in a good way.