Audiobook: Be Straight with Me, A Memoir in Verse
Author: Emily E. Dalton
Pub Date: May 19, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley, Andrews McMeel Audio, and Andrews McMeel Publishing for my audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Synopsis: This book is a memoir written in verse. Dalton’s memoir is her coming of age story, written about her time at Middlebury College, primarily focusing on her relationship with her gay best friend Max. After a dare at a Halloween party that ends with Emily and Max making out, the pair soon find themselves developing feelings for each other and in a relationship. Emily and Max essentially grow up together through their relationship and experience many rites of passage and areas of growth together.
My Thoughts: This is the most unique memoir I have ever read as it takes on verse form and reads as poetry. Dalton’s memoir is powerful and simultaneously heartbreaking but hopeful. This memoir was striking in a way that I felt the author took the deepest recesses of her heart and her vulnerability and laid it bare for us to witness and experience. What a rare gift!
For me this memoir also stands out because I felt like the author took us on her journey WITH her, instead of just telling us about it. I felt like I knew Dalton by the end of the memoir in a deeply intimate way. I also appreciated the author for being so open about how gender and sexuality played into her relationship with Max. This is the ultimate coming of age story that beautifully encapsulates the beauty and co-existing pain that often accompanies a person’s late teens/early twenties.
My Thoughts on the Audio Narration: Kate Rudd was a wonderful narrator who delivered an exceptional performance. Her narration truly added to Dalton’s story and help me, as the reader, feel like I was a part of the story.
For fans of: Coming of age stories, memoirs set on college campuses, memoirs that address gender and sexuality.
Okay In My Book 