*The book talked about in this post was gifted by Pengiun
Full Disclosure had been on my watch list for some time, so when it came around to Pengiun offering ARCs, i had very big grabby hands towards those copies. It felt like something that should be incredibly important in the YA world at the moment, and iw anted the chance to share it with everyone.
Full Disclosure is the story of Simone, her gay dads, her best friends she’s just made, her crush, and her medical history. Simone is born with HIV, something that many people before her have died from, hers is under control. She’s safe and healthy. However, her telling her peers is a whole other story.
I wanted to pick up this book so badly because i thought it would have amazing representation in it. I wasn’t wrong, luckily. There is so much LGBTQ+ representation packed in to this book, it’s truly wonderful to read. Simone herself struggles with her sexuality during this section of her life, along with her two best friends being LGBTQ+, and her dad’s being married. It’s really lovely to see sexuality brought in to books like this where they’re such a background element.
Not only that, there’s so much more representation of different ethnicity which i wasn’t expecting. It really gave a good representation of what life is truly like. Along with all this great content, there is a lot of positive representation of HIV and a lot of knowledge. I personally knew very little about HIV before reading this book. I knew the basics, but not so much the in-depth medical side, which Camryn does a great job diving in to. We don’t just get Simone explaining what HIV means to her, we see in to the doctors visits and their opinions and thoughts. It really helps to understand where Simone is at as a character and what mind-set she’d have at this stage. I really appreciated being able to learn something from this book.
The characters of Full Disclosure are some of the best i’ve read recently. Not only is her love interest, Miles, soft and fluffy and adorable, he’s his own person with an actual personality. Along with her friends who are polar-opposites but they work so well as a friend group. Not to mention Simone’s family who are all incredibly different and they make you feel as you are really having dinner with all of them. I really loved reading about the characters, and i definitely got a good sense of who everyone was.
This book is something that i think should be hyped (a lot more than it currently is). It’s incredibly well written, quite a lot of fun and more importantly, incredibly important! Not only is there representation for life long illness, and information for people about who HIV is contracted and no it’s not all about sex, there’s wonderful representation of characters such as LGBTQ+ and others. It’s honestly just a lovely book.
It may follow a classic story arc, but that’s a comfort in this stressful read. I adored it, and i will keep shouting about it.
The Little Contemporary Corner 