Genre: YA
My Review - 4 Stars
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Julian Winters in person and he’s such a wonderful human being. Also wonderful: his books. How To Be Remy Cameron is his second novel and it explores identity, adoption, and how awkward new love can be.
Remy is one of a few openly gay students at his high school and one of 5 Black students. Additionally, he was adopted by white parents and doesn’t know much about his birth parents, despite it being an open adoption. The story examines transracial adoption in some really interesting and nuanced ways. I cringed when I read that Remy found out he was adopted when he was in kindergarten after a kid told him his family drawing was wrong because he couldn’t be brown and have parents who were peach. I would love to read more YA stories of Black children adopted by white parents because I know quite a few families like this and it would be great to point them and their kids to books like this.
Remy is figuring out exactly who he is. In part, because that’s the internal work of every teenager. But also because it’s his assignment for his AP Literature class and he feels like he has a lot riding on his essay. This brought me back to those days: how small things felt like the highest of stakes, the confusion about where I belonged, and so on. Remy has more layers of confusion than I did because of his marginalization. He may have a great group of friends and get along with most people at school but he has a lot of questions about where he fits in and why.
Out of nowhere he’s contacted by his half-sister…but he didn’t even know he had a half-sister. Getting to know Free gives him the opportunity to learn about his birth parents but he’s not sure he wants to. Nor is he sure how or what to tell his parents.
Add in one crush on Ian, a former classmate who is now back in town, and you can see just why Remy feels a bit stressed these days. They could be so sweetly awkward together and I absolutely loved it. Ian isn’t out and this limits Remy in what he can tell other people about Ian, no matter how many people ask about his crush. I really enjoyed the evolution of their relationship. Their love story is closed door but there were lots of masturbation and dick references, FYI. This is great for the intended teen audience (this is totally normal and natural!) but I admit it made me feel weird at times as a woman in her late 30s.
The side characters were absolutely wonderful. Remy’s sister Willow was born when he was 10 and they have such a great dynamic. His best friend’s Lucy and Rio were fantastic and I would absolutely read books devoted to their stories. Brook and Chloe were a fun subversion of the usual high school couple trope, with Chloe as a female quarterback and Brook as a male cheerleader. There is effortless diversity with characters hailing from a number of different backgrounds.
A really solid and enjoyable story. I’m glad it exists in the world.
CW: adoption, past infertility, homophobia, homophobic bullying, racism, divorced parents, underage drinking, brief sexual harassment/racial fetishizing, alcoholism
Synopsis
Everyone on campus knows Remy Cameron. He's the out-and-proud, super-likable guy who friends, faculty, and fellow students alike admire for his cheerful confidence. The only person who isn't entirely sure about Remy Cameron is Remy himself. Under pressure to write an A+ essay defining who he is and who he wants to be, Remy embarks on an emotional journey toward reconciling the outward labels people attach to him with the real Remy Cameron within.
From the author of the bestselling novel Running With Lions, a story about overcoming the labels that try to define our lives.
Buy the book:
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Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from Duet Books in exchange for an honest review.
