Customer Reviews

Finding H.F.: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I really enjoyed all of the Julia Watts novels, this is by far the best! This is a tender, funny, intelligent novel about the friendship between a young lesbian and a young gay man living in Morgan, KY. The novel explores multiple issues including tolerance of gays and lesbians in small town America, the views of organized religion on gays and lesbians, and what it means to be "different" in our society. I highly recommend this book, and I think it should be required reading for high school students or for anyone who remembers what it was like to be one.

I found this book by accident one day while browsing in a gay bookstore in downtown Atlanta. From page one I loved it. H.F. is someone we all wish we could meet. Male or female. I totally fell in love with Beau (why can't I find a man like that?) and just her journey, not just physically, but emotionaly is enough to touch us all. A lot of people find it hard to go from the city to the country or vice versa but Ms. Watts genuinely brings our characters, stranded in a small hick town in Ketucky, to Atlanta and beyond without a hitch. By the time I'd driven from the store to my home I was halfway through the book; stoplights ARE helpful sometimes. Excellent novel. Excellent writer. Im hooked on Julia Watts.

Julia Watts, the best kept secret in gay/lesbian lit, returns to her fictional town of Morgan, Kentucky to look at the lives at two teenagers there. Despite that fact that we Watts fans know that the town is practically teeming with gay people (see Wildwood Flowers and Mixed Blessings, also by Watts), they begin a search for themselves on the road to Florida, and in doing so help consolidate their identities and the gay parts of those identities.

I'm a solid fan of Watts and she handles the territory with her usual skill and wit. Watts is one of the funniest writers now working (and certainly working in the GLB vein). Get this, spend the evening enjoying Watts's great writing, and then get the others.

Life in towns like Morgan, Kentucky has never been easy for queer teens. Appalachia of southeastern Kentucky continues to hold claim to the title "buckle of the bible belt." And children are still being named things like Pierre Beauregard --after his father's favorite CSA general-- and Heavenly Faith --her memaw was hoping her daughter's illegitimate child will grow into the name rather than following her mother's footsteps. Bo and H.F. for short, please, are struggling through their high school years in Morgan. The increased awareness of gay and lesbian issues in the new millennium increases queer teens' visibility and their vulnerability to peer punishment.

As H.F. who narrates this story of coming out and coming of age in 21st Century Appalachia, says "I guess I'm lucky, though, because I'm not the only one in school who's different. I don't have to be a lonely gazelle limping along while the lions stalk me. I've got Bo for a friend, and bless his heart, he's got it a lot rougher that I do. The sissy boys always have it harder than the tomboys." p 8

At the end of their sophomore year, H.F. decides she needs to look up the mother who abandoned her 16 years before. She convinces Bo to take a road trip to Florida. The teens, who have never been out of the state, pool their resources, pile into Bo's old Ford Escort and head south. Along the way these two young explorers find a loving gay community, role models, friends and the potential for a positive life.

Watts' novels are always a treat. (Reading Wedding Bell Blues made me laugh out loud. So go read the others too!) Her humor and characterization together with her understanding and insightful depiction of life in the Southland allow us to laugh at life's ironies. Don't let the cover of Finding H.F put you off. It's illustrative of an epiphany for H.F early in the novel and sets the tone for her coming out.

Finding H.F. is an evocative, compelling novel -- one you'll tell your friends to read. The characters are so real and irresistible, you'll feel as if you've moved in with them. Julia Watts is an exceptionally talented writer.

Julia Watts has turned out four novels (Wildwood Flowers, Phases of the Moon, Mixed Blessings and this one) set in the fictional community of Morgan, Kentucky. This one is one of her best. I've always wondered why more adventure novels don't have a female protagonist as this one does. H.F. and Bo travel through the south in search of H.F.'s mother, but instead find acceptance and love through the gay community. It parallels a journey many of us have had, leaving our families of origin and bonding with our family of choice. As alawys, watts writes with great sensitivity and skill. Why her work has not had wider acclaim I don't know. Perhaps this one will gain her the wide audience she so deserves. Some would hesitate to compare Watts to authors like Michael Chabon, they shouldn't. She is accruing a body of work the equal of anyone currently working in fiction.

The book Finding H.F. by Julia Watts is the story of a very unique sixteen-year old named Heavenly Faith Simms. Her religious grandmother, Gemma, gave the name to her. Though Gemma insists on calling her by Heavenly Faith, everyone else knows her as H.F. Abandoned by her mother as a child, H.F. is a social outcast at school... Later, H.F. discovers that Gemma had been communicating with her mother. And so, Bo and H.F. take a road trip to Florida only to find a new world and a new relationship for themselves. Along the way they make new friends and enjoy new experiences outside of the "southern U.S. bubble". If you like the book Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Luis Block, you will love this book. However, I recommend this book only to girls that are in the eighth grade and above because the details and concept require a mature attitude towards the theme.

Finding HF was a very good novel by Julia Watts. The novel offers a different perspective.

It takes place in the South, or "bible belt" of the United States. HF, the main character and protagonist finds a balance between believing in god and being herself. Her and her guy friend, who is also flaming, go on a road trip to find HF's mother. She has to find her mother to find herself.
This novel isn't so much based on romance, but is more coming to age.

The novel entertaining to say the least.

I was browsing through a gay bookstore in atlanta and just happend upon this book. Now I can't get enough! The characters really come alive off the page and I think many who read will relate to either Bo or H.F. I know I certainly did! The books main focus is about a young lesbian in Kentucky but as a gay male I found the entire thing to be a true work of art! I really enjoyed Ms. Watts book.

Excellent story from an obviously gifted author. HF lives in a tiny town in Kentucky, where they seem to be as redneck as they come. Her mom left her to live with her grandma after giving birth to her at 15. HF is now about 15 and her only friend is Bo, a classmate that is too sensitive and feminine for his own good. HF has never been with a girl but is a lesbian. In this funny, witty and touching story we follow HF as she discovers herself and those around her. This review really can't do justice to this well written story with a unique and unforgettable heroine. Highly recommended.