When then fine folks at Amplify told me that they had a book they wanted to send me for review, I couldn’t refuse. It’s not just any book, they told me. It’s a young adult coming of age tale about a gay boy. Are you serious? What do I love more in this world than a.) young adult fiction, b.) coming of age tales, and c.) gays? Um, yes please.

So, I get the book in the mail and its called Nothing Pink by Mark Hardy. The cover is various shades of pink and I know right then and there that we’re in business. I flip through to the back to read the author bio and story synopsis. Mark is a third grade teacher, is a consultant for literacy education, and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Stop. Back up. Rewind four months. Coast Guard beach, Truro MA. I’m sitting on the beach with my mom, my aunt and my aunt’s best friend. We’re discussing young adult literature (my cousin is completely consumed by Breaking Dawn a few feet away from us), per usual. Both my aunt and her best friend are elementary school teachers with a serious penchant for all things YA (young adult). They’ve always been my gateway into the new books I should be reading, and I’m anxious to hear about their recommendations.

“Oh my god, my friend is writing a YA novel! Its about his experience growing up gay in Virginia within a conservative Baptist family,” my aunt says excitedly. (She knows how much I especially like YA novels about sexuality).

We continue to talk about her friend, who teaches with her, and his struggle to come to terms with his religious upbringing and his proclivity for aqua net. She tells me that the book is set to be released in November, and that I should be keeping my eyes peeled for it.

Who needs to keep their eyes peeled when it gets sent to your doorstep?!

Needless to say, I was so excited to read this book. It’s a quick read at 109 pages, and Mark’s casual and funny writing style keeps the pages turning effortlessly. The story starts with fourteen-year old Vincent at his father’s church. His father is calling the sinners from their seats to the altar to have their sins erased. Vincent vividly describes digging his fingernails into the pew to keep his body from walking to the front of the church. There is no doubt in his mind that he is gay and similarly no doubt in his mind that if he gets up and walks to that altar the whole congregation will know. As the new pastor introduces his family to the church, Vincent makes this point clear,

“Daddy wasn’t done with the introduction before half the congregation could tell about me. My hair is a dead giveaway. People sometimes think I’m a girl because of my feathered Farrah Fawcett hairdo, but I just can’t cut my hair off. They can see the queer in every layer of hairspray. I see it, too, but I can’t quit spraying Aqua Net.”

He seems to be more concerned with the shame he will bring to his family once the church knows that he is gay rather than the immorality of his homosexuality. From this point in the book it is clear that he is going to struggle with his relationship to god and not his relationship to his homosexuality. This framework for the story is incredibly refreshing, considering the themes most prevalent in YA fiction. Typically, stories like these focus on the young person denying, fighting with, and ultimately reconciling with t heir sexuality. Mark shows in this novel that it was not his sexuality that needed to be questioned or challenged but his family’s religion. His denial, fighting with, and reconciliation process is with god, not being gay.

I couldn’t have read this book at a better time. I was feeling surrounded by discourses of religion and homosexuality. The passing of Prop 8 put the gears in motion for a widespread national dialogue about the constitutionality of religious discrimination. It seemed like (across the blogosphere at least) people were finally asking to see the lines in the bible that condemned homosexuality. Mass media seemed to be buzzing with questions about Christianity and gay marriage. Nothing Pink came as a breath of fresh air amidst the stagnation of having to choose between being gay or being religious. Either or, never both.

Instead of losing his faith in the wake of his sexuality he is able to find affirmation within the church. The moments that he spends with his boyfriend are the moments he feels closest to god. His faith never wavers, instead it is strengthened through being gay.

“I used to think that god would save me from my homosexuality, but after the laying on of hands, after spending the night in Robert’s bed and almost every day of the week with him, I realize god did hear me pray to be delivered. He didn’t answer the way I thought he would, but he did answer.”

“If I am such a sinner, why hasn’t god turned tail and run? I feel him as close now as I ever have. I’ve always felt him. There with Robert and me on the top of the fire tower. He was with me when I cut my stomach climbing through the window. He didn’t disappear when we kissed.”

When I called my aunt to tell her that I was going to review Mark’s book, she raved about it. She loved how “real” his depiction was of growing up gay and religious. She told me that it was one of the few books that didn’t feel contrived and solely issue-based. She couldn’t have been more right about Nothing Pink. This isn’t a story about a young Baptist boy struggling with his sexuality. It is a story about a young boy named Vincent managing the cards he was dealt and finding affirmation and agency within himself, his sexuality, and his religious faith.

Nothing Pink is a beautiful story, please go out and read it now. (Seriously.)

xx