Read Me Like a Book by Liz Kessler (review)

British teen Ashleigh is under a lot of stress: she’s got exams coming up, her parents are splitting up, she and her best friend are on the outs, and when she finally does decide to have sex, she suffers a pregnancy scare. The only good thing in her life is her new English teacher, who seems to really listen to her when she talks, encourages her to join a debating club, and helps her prepare for her exams. Ashleigh gradually finds herself thinking about Miss Murray all the time, but when she confesses her feelings, Miss Murray immediately balks and withdraws from her teaching position, leaving Ashleigh to work out her confusion on her own. Unlike the newer trend of LGBT books that feature characters who have always known their sexual orientation, Ashleigh takes a slow walk toward self-awareness through a swamp of contemporary relationship problems that tangle her emotions in knots. It’s therefore a little implausible that everybody she comes out to seems to have known before she did, but it’s good that when she’s finally certain, she’s both really certain and supported; she also sees her teacher for at least part of who she was—a helpful step along the way rather than a destination in herself. Readers who are weary of hyperbolic, joke-a-minute identity quests on the one hand and full-blown melodramatic angst on the other will appreciate the patient searching depicted here.