Kevin Reyes, a newly out gay high schooler in the Philippines, is still discovering his path. After coming out to his parents and being \u201cmet with silence\u201d before they changed the subject, Kevin leaves with a group of friends from the school journalism club. They\u2019re attending a party hosted by Raymond, an out classmate who appears to embody everything Kevin wishes to be: wealthy, popular, and with a \u201cfancy boyfriend.\u201d At the party, Kevin\u2019s friend Gaby broaches the idea of putting her name forward for student council president with Kevin as her running mate, but his self-defeating attitude quickly shuts her down. Later Kevin gets drunk and confesses his feelings of inadequacy to Raymond, who decides to take him on as a project. He presents Kevin with the same offer as Gaby\u2014and this time, Kevin agrees. He\u2019s captivated by Raymond\u2019s glamorous world and wants to impress his parents by running for student government. But the more time Kevin spends with Raymond, the more he sees beneath the glittering surface, and he\u2019s forced to take stock of the kind of person he truly wants to be. The story authentically explores internalized homophobia, the process of self-discovery, and the complicated family dynamics that arise when one sibling is held up as a perfect role model. Mercado\u2019s loose, dynamic artwork in dark navy with washes of pink conveys the intensity of the characters\u2019 emotions.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kevin Reyes, a newly out gay high schooler in the Philippines, is still discovering his path. After coming out to his parents and being \u201cmet with silence\u201d before they changed the subject, Kevin leaves with a group of friends from the school journalism club. They\u2019re attending a party hosted by Raymond, an out classmate who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}