{"id":664,"date":"2012-02-01T10:45:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T16:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=664"},"modified":"2012-02-05T06:39:26","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T12:39:26","slug":"a-e-4ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/a-e-4ever\/","title":{"rendered":"a + e 4EVER"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Find this book in a library near you!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/oclc\/761328597\">Merey, Ilike. <em>a + e 4EVER.<\/em> \u00a0Advance Reader Copy. Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2011. Paperback. 214p. $18.00. ISBN: 978-1-59021-390- 2<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/merey-a+e-4ever_lg11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-666\" style=\"border: 0pt none; float: left; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px;\" title=\"Cover of a+e 4EVER\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/merey-a+e-4ever_lg11-187x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"187\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/merey-a+e-4ever_lg11-187x300.jpg 187w, https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/merey-a+e-4ever_lg11.jpg 313w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 187px) 100vw, 187px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div><em>a + e 4EVER<\/em> follows a year in the lives of Asher and Eulalie, two gender- and sexuality-ambiguous misfits who find each other on the fringes of high\u00a0school society.<\/div>\n<p>Ash is an androgynous newcomer to the school where Eu has spent several years unsettling the mainstream crowd with her heavy-metal-listening butch ways. Their developing friendship, built through drawing sessions, raves, and a shared love of alternative music, forms the basis of this graphic novel.<\/p>\n<p>The first chapter introduces us to Ash\u2018s fear of being touched, born of a long history of unpleasant and non-consensual physical encounters. Later chapters address many more of the emotional and physical abuses that non-gender- and non-sexuality-conforming teenagers face<br \/>\nThe visual presentation of <em>a+e 4EVER<\/em> is as unconventional as its topic\u2014revelations about the protagonists unfold via multiple fonts and drawing styles, giving the book a disjointed and rebellious feel. Readers may conclude that format was designed with more thought to defying convention than to readability, as many of the fonts are nearly illegible, and some of the characters visually indistinguishable from each other.\u00a0, from schoolyard bullying to rape. Merey handles these topics in a way that brings to mind the UK television show <em>Skins<\/em>, addressing the trauma that is often ignored with an unsentimental directness.<\/p>\n<p>However, these formatting choices do contribute to a feeling of authenticity, and readers will feel thoroughly immersed in the confusing world of adolescents who are figuring out how to live in a hostile world without any adult figures to provide guidance.<br \/>\nAlthough the topics of this novel are timely, previously mentioned stylistic issues such as the variety of indecipherable fonts make this a weak graphic novel from a purely technical point of view. Finally, though it does portray the realities of adolescence for many LGBTQ people, it lacks the poignancy and warmth that draws so many readers to similar coming of age titles, such as Craig Thompson\u2018s <em>Blankets<\/em>.<br \/>\n<em>a+e 4EVER<\/em> is suitable for adults and older teens, due to its graphic sexual and violent content. I recommend it for public libraries that already have a sizable collection of LGBTQ-themed YA materials.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reviewed by\u00a0<strong>Emily Grantz <\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Learning Resources Technician <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Ohlone College, Fremont (CA)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merey, Ilike. a + e 4EVER. \u00a0Advance Reader Copy. Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2011. Paperback. 214p. $18.00. ISBN: 978-1-59021-390- 2 a + e 4EVER follows a year in the lives of Asher and Eulalie, two gender- and sexuality-ambiguous misfits who find each other on the fringes of high\u00a0school society. Ash is an androgynous newcomer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}