Book Review: Fan Art by Sarah Tregay

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Fan Art
Author: Sarah Tregay
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary | Romance
Released: June 17th 2014
Review Source: Katherine Tegen Books
 

A sweet contemporary romance about a boy who falls in love with his best friend, and the girls who help them get together.

Jamie Peterson has a problem: Even though he tries to keep his feelings to himself, everyone seems to know how he feels about Mason, and the girls in his art class are determined to help them get together. Telling the truth could ruin Jamie and Mason's friendship, but it could also mean a chance at happiness. Falling in love is easy, except when it's not, and Jamie must decide if coming clean to Mason is worth facing his worst fear.

In Fan Art, Sarah Tregay, the author of the romantic Love and Leftovers, explores the joys and pains of friendship, of pressing boundaries, and how facing our fears can sometimes lead us to what we want most. Fan Art is perfect for fans of contemporary romances as well as novels like Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan and Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg.

Oh boy did I love this! Fan Art portrays a story not just through words but through art and is such a cute story at that. It’s senior year for Jamie Peterson and he’s got a huge secret on his shoulders, he’s in love with his best friend Mason. Being out to his parents is easy, it’s being out to his best friend that’s the hard part. Jamie is scared to not only come out to his best friend but to tell him he has feelings for him. He’s petrified to come out to Mason because he’s scared it’s going to ruin their friendship and Mason won’t want to be around Jamie anymore. So we’ve got Jamie, a senior, secret crush on his BFF, and the editor of the schools literary magazine. Jamie didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he told a fellow student, Challis, if she did an original piece with original characters he would make sure it would be published in Gumshoe, the literary magazine. When he gets the graphic short he’s surprised by how much he loves it, but what he’s not prepared for is the other members of Gumshoe shooting down the graphic short.

The graphic short, which is in the book, is about two boys who go to school together and while at a party get tricked into kissing each other, when it was a cruel joke, it was what the boys wanted to do in the first place. I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but it everything starts to unfold for Jamie at the start of this graphic short, but the real problem still exists, no matter what his feelings for Mason are as his best friend he needs to finally come out to him.

What I absolutely loved throughout this story was the short and the poems that were placed throughout this book, the entries for the school’s literary magazine. Everyone in this story needs to overcome fears, it may be coming out to your best friend, coming out to your parents, or just understanding yourself. The book covers the angst of high school, but gives you hope for maybe not a happy ending but a happy future. I enjoyed watching Jamie fight for the rights in the school, that even though the short may have been about a gay couple and they may lose funding for it, but Gumshoe isn’t about what the adults think, it’s not their magazine it’s the entire high school’s magazine and should reach out to everyone in school. So I definitely loved this story and think anyone who may be scared of what others may think should read it. It was like fanfiction for these kids, but instead of stories they drew pictures. I would definitely love to hear more from Mason throughout this time *cough novella cough* please Sarah Tregay ;).