So Hard to Say
Summary:
This book is told through the perspective of two characters: Frederick, 13, is the new boy at his school in California with mostly Hispanic students, and Xio, a girl in his class, who soon becomes his friend. Xio and Frederick become closer and while Xio wants Frederick to be her boyfriend, Frederick has doubts. He wonders if he might really like Victor from the soccer team and yet he sees how difficult it is for Iggy, a boy at school who everyone says is gay.
Edited by: Dublin City University
Comment:
This novel explores issues around self-realisation and coming to terms with your sexuality for younger teens. For much of the novel, the characters see being gay as a problem. Frederick thinks that talking to a gay boy at his new school would be ‘suicide’; Xio notes that ‘calling someone gay is the worst thing you can say to them’. A slow figuring out of feelings and positions occurs throughout: Frederick gradually works out his feelings through internet searches, having conversations with his father about left-handedness as a form of difference that cannot be chosen, and eventually speaking with Iggy, a boy presumed to be gay. As the novel ends, the beginning of an open acceptance of gay characters is apparent, demonstrating the novel’s overarching concern with change, transition, and newness, which many of the characters grapple with in different ways.