Customer Reviews

The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities

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So what happens when you gather up a group of young, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and other label-full or label-free writers and ask them to share a real life experience to be published in a book?
ANSWER:
The Full Spectrum.
A collection of non-fiction stories that can be found in the fiction section of your favorite library or bookstore.
Why the fiction section you ask?
Fiction sells.
Anthologies come and go, come and go, usually unnoticed and dammit!- we don't want this book to just `go'. We need its readers to find it first. This book is out there so that you realize, finally realize that you're not alone. Oh sure, your closet's cramped, there's no leg room in that 4X4 box that only fits you and your fears but...the book is small. Structured perfectly to fit the hands of anyone who wants to let a little laughter, a little heartache, a little hope and reality into their life.
The writers...yes, we're young. Teenagers and random 20-somethin' year olds, but our stories(experiences) are ageless.
So, look for the heartbreakingly beautiful book chock-full `o non-fiction in the fiction section of any store that sells books.
We wanted to share a little piece of ourselves with you and if you go to [...], you're welcome to share with each of us as well.

Amazon doesn't seem to like my review of THE FULL SPECTRUM, so please check it out on the TeensReadToo dot com website. This is a great book, and you deserve to read the review.

This book is a fantastic answer to a lot of the older anthologies that I've read. It filled with hope and heartbreak and some really great stories. There's a wonderful variety of voices and identities through this book and it demonstrates some awesome commonalities across them all. The desire to feel accepted and loved and definite hope comes through.

It's a great book to share with someone who might not understand GLBTQ issues and it was very personal and real.

Loved it.

The pieces in this anthology tackle a myriad of topics: coming out, religion, first love, unaccepting parents/peers, religion, supportive parents/peers, the Boy Scouts, the military, religion(!); in a variety of settings: high school, New Your City, college, junior high, Egypt. They are written by young people who fall under the umbrella term "queer," but identify as gay, bi, trans, lesbian, gender-variant, and more. Some of the pieces are positive and affirming, some speak of overcoming unbearable hardship and hate, some end as hopeless as they began. All of them are important and valid, just like the young people who wrote them.

As a collection, The Full Spectrum is ambitious. It strives to present a multitude of experiences and identities, and it does. The mix of guys and girls, trans or not, is great. The mix of topics is also expansive, and given how much religion is mentioned, the mix of opinions on it is also widely variant. Also the mix of poetry, prose, letters, and diary entries was great. I never felt bogged down in too much angsty poetry or journal writing; all was in balance. This mix of writing styles will, hopefully, make this book accessible and attractive to readers of all stripes.

My main problem was with the editing. Some of these pieces are beautiful bits of polished writing. Some of them are not. I imagine this has a lot to do with the state they were in when they were submitted. Many of these pieces were written by young people about the most traumatic periods of their lives! Everything is in their writing and everything is raw. Everything. It is completely understandable that some of them lack polish. These pieces could have used the guidance of a good editor, and it is a shame that they didn't get it. That said, these stories are compelling, each and every one. If I, an almost-30-year-old, engaged, queer woman had such a strong reaction to this book, I cannot even begin to imagine how much solace and revelation this book could provide for someone still going through the experiences described there in. I saw myself in these stories. I saw my friends. Everyone deserves to be able to see themselves in stories like these too.


Book source: I bought it

The Full Spectrum is a series of essays collected from America's young queer voices. In turns hilarious, heartbreaking, intellectual, and artistic, each of the essays (or poems, or pictures) provides a unique window into a small piece of our world and culture. I couldn't put the book down - it's simply fascinating how each writer's voice and experience comes through loud, proud, and clear, without a trace of cliche or "us versus them" politicism.

The queer community is coming to life today in vibrant ways no one could have imagined a decade ago, but the fight isn't over until we can honstly say we're all just people. Getting inside the minds of these authors shows that it really is true.

This anthology presents a well-rounded view of the challenges and opportunities for young gay people. I read it as a community assignment, to determine whether it should remain on the shelf of the high school library. The committe voted yes, due to the various viewpoints expresed in the book. I recommend this to anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge of human nature.