Review: Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June

Title: Jay’s Gay Agenda

Author: Jason June

Publisher: HarperTeen

Length: 368 Pages

Category: YA/Teen Contemporary

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Jason June’s absolute gem of a debut novel is gloriously heartwarming, genuinely sincere, and quintessentially charming from beginning to end.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: There’s one thing Jay Collier knows for sure—he’s a statistical anomaly as the only out gay kid in his small rural Washington town. While all his friends can’t stop talking about their heterosexual hookups and relationships, Jay can only dream of his own firsts, compiling a romance to-do list of all the things he hopes to one day experience—his Gay Agenda.

Then, against all odds, Jay’s family moves to Seattle and he starts his senior year at a new high school with a thriving LGBTQIA+ community. For the first time ever, Jay feels like he’s found where he truly belongs. But as Jay begins crossing items off his list, he’ll soon be torn between his heart and his hormones, his old friends and his new ones . . . because after all, life and love don’t always go according to plan.

Review: Released just in time to kick off Pride month, Jason June’s debut Coming-of-Age novel, Jay’s Gay Agenda, is delightful and heartwarming and irresistibly readable from the first page to the last. I swear, if I had a dime for every time I caught myself with a stupid goofy grin on my face . . . But Jay’s story is not all sweetness and light; there’s some conflict here too, which only added to my unequivocal investment in his journey.

There’s a reason representation and diversity matter, perhaps especially in YA fiction, and Jay’s story makes it clear why. Feeling alone in a school full of people experiencing everything you want but can’t have because you happen to be the only gay kid in town, isn’t a great place to be. The list (Jay is a list-maker extraordinaire and statistics aficionado!) of milestone moments he longs to check off, one-by-one, suddenly becomes a lot more achievable when his mom gets a promotion at work and the family relocates from tiny Riverton, Washington, to Seattle, where Jay is set to attend Capitol Hill High School his senior year, and all the gay dreams he can imagine will be fulfilled—which, frankly, was sometimes like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion and not being able to stop it.

I absolutely adored Jay, from the tip of his killer bangs to the bottom of his ever-growing Gay Agenda list. His meet-cute, rom-com, almost-disaster of a moment on the first day of school with the VSB (Very Sexy Boy) Albert Huang started everything in motion (List Item #1: Meet another gay kid – ✓ ). Other checked-off items begin to accumulate as well when he meets Max, a genderfluid classmate who agrees to be Jay’s Gay Guide and becomes his new Seattle BFF. Max takes on Jay like a much-needed project, and step one? Well, that’s helping Jay hook up with a guy for the first time. This, of course, is where the train begins to derail because while the other VSB on Jay’s radar, Tony (college guy!), is more than willing to help him lose his virginity, it’s Jay’s heart that’s getting involved with the sweet, kind, gentle, open and honest Albert. Mm-hm, love and lust, and no few lies—of both commission and omission—cause issues for sweet, caught-up-in-the-moment Jay.

This absolute gem of a story is about self-discovery, making mistakes, finding first love, acceptance, family, and about “framily”—the friends who become family—and about learning how to balance making others happy while not losing yourself and letting yourself (and everyone else) down in the process. I loved both of Jay’s BFFs, Max and Lu, the friend he had to leave behind in Riverton. I adored the sweet, geeky Albert for his openness and honesty and sincerity. And I was over the moon for Jay’s parents for being loving and supportive and warm and open. In a genre where parents often play the role of villain—which, obviously, they sometimes are—it was so refreshing to be able to love Mom and Dad Collier wholeheartedly.

Jay’s Gay Agenda may very well be the first book I’ve ever read where I liked/loved almost every single character in it, even the boy I was supposed to side-eye for being a super-creep to Jay and Max. Tony, however; he’s the one. As Jay might say, Tony fracked around and found out. Ugh. Jason June tells a gloriously joyous, genuinely sincere, and quintessentially charming story that I can’t recommend enough for fans of contemporary YA. I will most certainly be on the lookout for this author’s future works.

You can buy Jay’s Gay Agenda here:
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