Annie on My Mind (Paperback)

The writing is excellent; it portrays a lesbian teenage relationship fraught with uncertainty. I think this book would appeal to the straight teenager as well as the gay.

The uncertainty that they both feel, about what they are feeling happens to all. I found myself reading one page, racing through the text, having to re-read the pages more than once, to get to the next. Knowing that this beautiful relationship will hit a snag, wanting the snags, just so you could read it repaired.

I love this book, and I am set to read it again, and notice all the subtleties I missed in my haste to finish.

The characters are complex, which makes this book so wonderful. They are human, with human emotions that I have found to be lacking in any romance fiction. When it comes to gay or lesbian fiction, the relationships are usually described as lust filled encounters, two people meet, unexpectedly attracted to each other and end up sleeping together, thinking in their mind "oh I shouldn't be doing this" for a mere second. In this wonderful novel, the characters seem duly confused over their growing attraction to each other, and uncomfortable with themselves, trying to explain it to the other. Whether you are gay or straight, confessing that you have strong feelings for another person is difficult, adding societal pressures to the mix... Nancy Garden manages to capture it all, in her too short a book.

My measure of good characters is that long after you put the book down, you wonder what the future holds for them. i find myself wishing Nancy Garden to write a follow up, so I can find out what happens between these two.

Please read this book, I have very few favourites, and this is one of them.

Well, it is a big deal if it happens to you. There is a dearth even in this day and age of books for teenagers about growing up gay, but this particular example has stood the test of time. The date of its publication, 1982, will inevitably lead to comparisons with Edmund White’s “A Boy’s Own Story,” yet while White’s semi-autobiographical work is perhaps the greater achievement, “Annie On My Mind” is the one I would recommend most strongly to teenagers.

The emphasis, quite rightly, falls on the love between the two main characters, but Nancy Garden also takes the chance to highlight the prejudices of others and the awkwardness of young, self-conscious gay couples to express their feelings for each other outwardly – not because they are ashamed, but because they are aware of the bigotry surrounding them.

There are uncomfortable moments in the book, but Nancy Garden is to be applauded for tackling prejudice in a mature way, rather than by forcing her own morality on the reader. We are encouraged to see both pro- and anti-gay opinion, but are ultimately left in no doubt about which is the stronger.

This is a book which will both affirm the acceptability of being gay to teenagers struggling with their sexuality and also inform straight readers of the difficult choices facing gays to this day. It is also emphatically not a book purely intended for adolescents, and can be enjoyed by anyone who is prepared to approach a book open-minded. After all, in the end it’s a book about love.