DRC provided by Dial Books via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.
Representation: gay white protagonist of Scottish descent, gay Iranian secondary character, Vietnamese secondary character, Brazilian secondary character, Gujarati Indian secondary character, non-binary Black tertiary character, gay white tertiary character.
Content Warning: online harassment, homophobia, mentions of parental death, fetishisation, mentions of vomiting, doxing, sex negativity, racism, mentions of bullying, sexual harassment, alcohol, homophobic slur.
Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram is a zestful contemporary novel focusing on the gay member of a Canadian boy band, the way his life is scrutinised in relation to his love life and his sexuality, how the latter is sanitised to appeal to the mainstream and how selfishness and egocentrism can impact our empathy and can blind us to whoever surround us and their problems.
Hunter was a great hockey player until an unfortunate accident destroyed his dream. He did not expect though that an impromptu music video with his best friends on the subject of poutine would go viral and start his career as a singer and song-writer. He did not anticipate either how being part of Kiss & Tell as a gay boy would have been curated to please societal standards of how queer people should be seen when they are as public as Hunter is.
Who knows me on a deeper level, knows Darius the Great Is Not Okay is one of my absolute favourite books ever (in the top five of my personal ranking, if not even top three), but as a friend said in her review Kiss & Tell is not Darius. They are like two intersecting lines who run on different trajectories, but still have a point of convergence.
In my opinion, Adib Khorram is a master of character creation and that is why I think that his character-driven narrations are pure emotional excellency. In all his works, he crafts such compelling protagonists, secondary and tertiary characters, and Kiss & Tell is no exception.
Perhaps, I am too attached to Darius to have an entirely unbiased opinion because while I really liked Adib’s newest book, I did not fall head over heels for it and upon reflecting on the reason for a long time (I finished this book last month), I opine the book should have been longer. There is this pre-conceived notion that young adult contemporary novels need to stay within a certain length and I hate that belief. So many books would have benefited from being extended beyond their current finishing point.
That is basically the only negative feedback I can give this book as I very much liked the rest, in particular how well Adib juggled the decentring of white queerness as the only dimension of social vulnerability (showing how Hunter in his misguided selfishness overlooks his surroundings and the bigger picture, focusing on his problems and those alone, while willingly and unwillingly ignoring his bandmates’ feelings about the public reaction to their success and the racism filling the industry); the critique of sex negativity and the discussion around the demonization of queer sex and the way white patriarchal cisheteronormativity “cleans” queer public personas; and, of course, the underlying theme of mental health which permeates Khorram’s novels, both predominantly in Darius and subordinately here, and which I hope will always remain a recurrent topic.
Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram is still a hit out of the park for me (despite my rating) and I whole-heartedly recommend it. Reading experiences are a rather subjective matter, but I hope you will give this book a chance, and read Darius’ novels as well, as Adib is really an excellent writer.
Rating: ★☆★☆,5
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