The Mariposa Club by Rigoberto Gonzalez

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I’m always a little worried when I read a Young Adult / Coming of Age novel, since I really care for these young men and I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. That is maybe the reason why, most time than not, I check the last pages to be sure the above young men are all fine at the end of the novel. In The Mariposa Club it’s even more a chance since there are four of them: Lib, Trini, Isaac and Maui, the narrative voice. They are all 17 years old at their last year in high school and surprise, surprise, they are out at school and to their families, with different outcome but still out.

Lib apparently has no trouble at all, he has a loving family, good grades at school and probably a brilliant future in politics; Trini, more transgender than gay actually, is the one with the worst family background, basically his parents kicked him out and he is living with an old aunt; Isaac comes from a middle class family, his father has not really accepted him being gay, but he is coping, more or less; and finally Mauricio “Maui”, without mother but with, probably, the best of all above parent, a father that, even if he doesn’t understand his son, is always ready to support him, despite all.

Sure these foursome has not it easy at school, but all in all their story is the story of ordinary teenagers, with family trouble, school trouble, boyfriends trouble… their biggest problem is to find a way to be remember in the school yearbook and so they decide to establish the first LGBT club in their high school, The Mariposa Club. In their naiveté, since they need at least five members, they enlist Maddy, the “obvious” lesbian girl, that is not lesbian at all, but that will gladly help just for the fun to go against the system.

On a more personal level, Maui has a little crush on Isaac and some family issues to overcome: his older sister is going away to college and she asks to Maui to stay at home taking care of their father, when Maui’s biggest dream is to run away to college as soon as he graduates. Again, the feeling is of very typical teenager trouble, trouble that seem huge at that age, but that actually are nothing in an older perspective. It was refreshing, for once, to read of gay guys that can live their teen year more or less undisturbed, dreaming of boyfriends and of the wonderful future attending them; sure some of them feel trapped, some of them will try to shorten the way, but in the end, all of them will find their way towards those dreams.

http://lethepressbooks.com/tincture.htm#gonzalez-the_mariposa_club

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Amazon: The Mariposa Club
Amazon Kindle: The Mariposa Club
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 230 pages
Publisher: Tincture (October 18, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590213505
ISBN-13: 978-1590213506

Reading List:

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