‘I want what the straight kids have. Even just for a couple of days . . .’
Seventeen-year-old gay boy Max might be out and proud but he’s usually too busy checking his nail polish to check his privilege.
So, when he says he wishes he could have the ‘easy’ life straight kids enjoy, Max gets more than he bargained for. He wakes up to find his wish has come true – not only have his feelings for boys vanished, so has his lifelong best friend Dean.
With his world turned upside down and relationships in tatters, can Max find his way back to the life he took for granted, and maybe even win the heart of the guy he thought could never be his . . .?
Straight Expectations is a deliciously swoony queer YA romance featuring a diverse cast of characters from across the LGBTQ+ family that you are guaranteed to fall in love with.
I’m so pleased to get to be a part of the #blogtour for Straight Expectations. I may be a little older than perhaps the average YA reader but I love that we live in a time where all reading choices are acceptable and branching out from the ‘traditional’ is positively encouraged! Reading a story set at the end of secondary school brings back a strange nostalgia combined with the joy that I don’t have to be a modern teen navigating the world, whilst simultaneously terrified about helping my daughter with this in years to come. Max, Dean and Alicia are three best friends who are enjoying their final year at school before heading off into the big wide world. Dean and Alicia more or less know what they want to do with their lives, and also how hard they’ll need to work to make it happen. Max is less sure and is struggling, not just with what next but with some wider issues about his identity and relationships. It seems that his friends have it all sussed and he is never going to get there. Anger gets the better of him and sets of a cascade of strange events!
You’ll have seen from the blurb that Max finds himself in a strange alternative version of his life following a fight. This sets up Straight Expectations to explore a large number of issues including racism, family tensions and core values, in addition to the friendship struggles which triggered the jump. I think it is so important to be able to talk about anything and everything and when books address difficult issues so openly, it may help start conversations which might not happen otherwise. The story is reasonably light but these areas are key to some of the plot lines and keep a good balance and pace to the book.
Despite having his moments, I really liked Max as a character and was rooting for him throughout. I think it is so easy to get caught up in what isn’t going well and to forget about all the amazing things you do have. Similarly, Alicia and Dean are both really well written, the kind of group of friends I would have wanted to hang out with. They were all lucky to have very supportive parents which perhaps won’t be the case for all readers, but as a parent reading this book, it has made me think about how I parent and how I can do it better. In saying that, I’m not sure that it is possible not to be completely mortifying to your child no matter what you do, but here’s hoping!
As an adult reading Straight Expectations I thoroughly enjoyed it and I believe that I would have felt the same reading it two decades ago. I think it is fun and entertaining read and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who fancies trying something new.
About Calum McSwiggan: Calum McSwiggan is an author, presenter, and LGBTQ+ advocate. He’s worked for Attitude magazine, written for the Metro, Gay Times and PinkNews, and was recently placed in the Guardian‘s list of the 50 most influential LGBTQ+ figures. Putting LGBTQ+ stories at the heart of everything he does, he’s produced award- winning films that have been showcased at film festivals around the world and racked up over 10 million views on his online videos.
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