Things We Couldn't Say
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4.3 • 9 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
From one of the brightest and most acclaimed new lights in YA fiction, a fantastic new novel about a bi Black boy finding first love . . . and facing the return of the mother who abandoned his preacher family when he was nine.
There's always been a hole in Gio's life. Not because he's into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio's life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he's started to get his life together, she's back.
It's hard for Gio to know what to do. Can he forgive her like she wants to be forgiven? Or should he tell her she lost her chance to be in his life? Complicating things further, Gio's started to hang out with David, a new guy on the basketball team. Are they friends? More than friends? At first, Gio's not sure . . . especially because he's not sure what he wants from anyone right now.
There are no easy answers to love -- whether it's family love or friend love or romantic love. In Things We Couldn't Say, Jay Coles, acclaimed author of Tyler Johnson Was Here, shows us a guy trying to navigate love in all its ambiguity -- hoping at the other end he'll be able to figure out who is and who he should be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
High school junior Giovanni Zander, 17, loves the band Paramore, making playlists, and spending time with his two best friends—Ayesha, who is Black, and Olly, who is white—as well as his younger brother, Theo. Beneath his joy, though, Gio struggles to navigate his relationship with his pastor father, who hates that Gio is both bisexual and plays basketball instead of devoting his life to the church; the trauma from his mother abandoning the family when he was younger; and the world as a Black teenager. As Gio works toward developing an upbeat outlook, his birth mother suddenly reappears, asking to be part of his life. Concurrently, he must face his sexuality when David, a new neighbor and basketball teammate, develops a crush on him. With tensions rising at home, Gio fights to make sense of complicated emotions regarding his mother, David, and David's whiteness, while also maintaining his grades, basketball, and social life. Coles (Tyler Johnson Was Here) tackles the complexities of religion and sexuality, trauma and forgiveness, and race and relationships, exploring the myriad layers of one person's identity and the importance of each in this emotional, yet joyful, novel. Ages 12–up.
