Like a Love Story (by Abdi Nazemian)

I possibly should have quit my queer YA reading spree while I was ahead, with Stay Gold. 

Loved the premise of this book,  a coming of age novel set during the AIDS epidemic in New York. The fear of AIDS, the deaths of so many, and the general homophobia of society reminds us how far we've come since then -- and the fact that the novel ends with a mention of the Pulse nightclub shooting reminds us how far we have to go. However, I had a lot of issues with this book.

• The relationships don't work. I never got a sense of friendship between Reza and Judy, other than he is very good looking and she is a horny teenager. Reza and Art have this love at first sight thing that also only seems to be based on good looks and horniness. (Which is fine and probably realistic, but don't expect me to get emotionally invested, because I won't, and I didn't.) 
• Art and Judy's friendship was the best drawn one, but their fight makes absolutely no sense. Judy decides to reject both of them without finding out what happened, and Art and Reza fail to point out that the big "betrayal" is Art trying to give Reza a flower and Reza saying "I'm not gay." Like, how is this a massive betrayal? It's not. So the giant fight (in which everyone including the adults acts like Reza and Art are horrible people) makes no sense and makes everyone look bad.
• The answer to "The Lord be with you" in a Catholic mass in the 1980s is "And also with you." The fact that "And with your spirit" is in there drove me insane. This is a small thing but as a former Catholic I couldn't let it go by.
• Other reviews have pointed out transphobia and issues of sexual consent, and I agree with those reviews.
  

Mostly though, I just wasn't emotionally engaged. Which sucks, because the premise is so great and there definitely are amazing moments and a deep history here.