Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett
2019 [304p]
Library ed. ISBN 978-1-9848-2996-2 $21.99
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-9848-2995-5 $18.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-9848-2997-9 $10.99
Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 9-12
A new high school seems to be just the thing for Simone Garcia-Hampton, after the fact that she's HIV+ got out at her old one and hostility and fear drove her away; at this school she's got good friends, a plum opportunity as the director of the student musical (Rent), and soon a boyfriend in the wonderful Miles. However, anonymous notes dropped into Simone's locker threaten her with exposure of her secret unless she tells Miles. Can she avoid being shamed out of another school? Simone, adopted African-American daughter of an interracial gay couple in San Francisco, is an effective device for HIV education. The thematic consistency of her family's history (their experience with losing friends to AIDS encouraged them to adopt an HIV+ baby) and the use of Rent give depth to the issue of stigma; the book is also refreshingly sex positive as well as HIV positive. Characterization is slight and situational, however (what's more, Simone is often downright needlessly unpleasant to people), and the authentic concerns about becoming a pariah due to others' prejudice get undercut by some unlikely plotting (including a stirring but utterly implausible climactic speech by Simone). Readers may nonetheless enjoy the soap-operatic flavor and the suspenseful element even as they learn a bit about HIV and tolerance.
