Big Burr, Kansas is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone - or so they think. But after being labelled "the most homophobic town in America", a group of queer activists are moving in, and everything is about to change.
Linda welcomes the newcomers. The less they know about the death of her son, the better. Avery is furious at being uprooted from her life in LA. She dreads her classmates discovering that her mom is the head of the queer task force. And Gabe, a lifelong Big Burr resident, is no longer sure about the life he's built with his wife.
While new friendships are formed, elsewhere tensions reach boiling point. And every resident, old and new, must reconsider the true meaning of community.
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I'm sitting in second-period biology, where I should be diagramming a chain of DNA but instead, I'm diagramming something way more fascinating: the back of Jake Summer's neck.
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(@HQstories, 9 December 2021, 287 pages, copy from the publisher via # NetGalley)
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This is a new author for me. This book has been on my radar because it sounded like a lot of fun. I liked some things about Under the Rainbow but some aspects of the book didn't work for me. The main issue I had is that I didn't really like any of the characters, locals and LGBTQ+ activists alike. I didn't feel a connection to any of them. I need to get behind at least one character to completely enjoy a book. The book is structured more like a collection of stories about these characters rather than a cohesive novel. The stories told in this book and subject tackled are important but it didn't work on every level for me.