Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Last Seen Leaving Response 2
After my last post, I read the rest of the book in a night. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it got better. And there were not one, but two twists that caught me by surprise. So, I would highly recommend this book. It does see a mostly happy ending for Flynn- I won't talk about what happened to January so I don't spoil it, but I will say that his parents and friends accept him for being gay and he even has a boyfriend. I think that this book does an excellent job at showing how being part of the LGBTQ+ community is only a part of someone's life. And, because of this, I think that this novel does go against my single story. Yes, Flynn's family and friends were accepting, but his coming out was largely overshadowed by his missing ex-girlfriend and, after coming out, his time was mostly spent trying to figure out what happened to January. And, considering that he was a potential suspect, I think that it would have been absurd for him to be less concerned with that. I would love to teach this book, but I don't think that I ever would because it touches on a lot of sensitive topics, including rape, murder, and suicide. I would, however, keep the book in my classroom library for students to read if they chose to because I think that it is definitely worth reading.
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I love when books have twists that really catch you off guard! And maybe this book would be good to teach. Yes sometimes sensitive topics are hard to present, but they need to be to let students know that they aren't taboo. These themes and topics need to be talked about so that victims can feel comfortable discussing, but also so other people can talk about it without blushing. They are serious situations, and if parents or guardians don't talk about them at home with students, who will? In my own experience we never read any stories with LGBTQ characters, and that's a huge problem. I think teaching this book would be great since it is engaging as you said, but also doesn't make Flynn's identity only as a gay man. The book is also about other themes it seems. I really am considering reading this book for fun!
ReplyDeleteKaitlin, this is a book I had also chosen with my original single story. I think I would agree with you -- based off of your description of the sensitive topics in this book -- about explicitly teaching it in your classroom. I think there are plenty of amazing books that tackle subjects in a conducive way, but I'm not so sure that a mystery would be the best choice in that case. I think this would be an awesome book to keep in your library, and suggest to students, but just be sure that you talk to them about trigger warnings.
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