ARC Review: Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun

Please don’t be fooled into thinking I’m biased in my opinion about Jonny’s book, I’m really not. They really just are that talented and created that lovely & soft novel. The music mix accompanying this review is titled “inside your arms i feel so much warmer” (Where We’re Going / Gregory Dillon), and that is exactly the vibe of this book.

And hey, we actually interviewed Jonny some time ago, check it out!

Also don’t forget to follow Jonny Garza Villa on twitter!

A poignant, funny, openhearted novel about coming out, first love, and being your one and only best and true self.

Julián Luna has a plan for his life: Graduate. Get into UCLA. And have the chance to move away from Corpus Christi, Texas, and the suffocating expectations of others that have forced Jules into an inauthentic life.

Then in one reckless moment, with one impulsive tweet, his plans for a low-key nine months are thrown—literally—out the closet. The downside: the whole world knows, and Jules has to prepare for rejection. The upside: Jules now has the opportunity to be his real self.

Then Mat, a cute, empathetic Twitter crush from Los Angeles, slides into Jules’s DMs. Jules can tell him anything. Mat makes the world seem conquerable. But when Jules’s fears about coming out come true, the person he needs most is fifteen hundred miles away. Jules has to face them alone.

Jules accidentally propelled himself into the life he’s always dreamed of. And now that he’s in control of it, what he does next is up to him.

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun

Jonny Garza Villa

Goodreads

Rep: Mexican American gay mc, Vietnamese American gay li, gay, lesbian, bi & pan side characters
TWs: past & present parental abuse, physical abuse (chapter 14 & 28), homophobia, outing, mc gets kicked out
Release: 8th June 2021

You know those gay books, young adult ones especially, that make it very clear with every single plot-point, that they’re written for the LGBT audience? Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun is like that.

This is not to say that nothing bad ever happens to the gay characters in the book, quite the opposite, but there’s balance: for every painful, hurtful thing there are three beautiful ones. I’m sure it was a deliberate choice, this structuring of the book around gay happiness, without shying away from describing the hardships a lot of the community still struggles with.

Julián has an abusive, homophobic father. That’s a major part of the story; it shapes the way he thinks of himself, the way he navigates the world, it shapes the literal course of his life. And that unfortunately rings true for so many of us. But still, Julián is never once shamed for keeping secrets when he’s keeping them to stay safe, he’s never questioned on whether that’s reasonable. The people around him understand, and that makes the reader’s heart grow with hope despite the abuse. 

But keep in mind the aforementioned balance: Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun isn’t a book about gay pain, it’s not a tragedy porn. It’s actually a super sappy & fun book, about two boys who fell in love over the inter webs. It truly does have the meet-cute of our age, and that one situation (with the hilarity of it but also the friends’ reactions) should tell you all you need to know about the tone of this novel.

Garza Villa nails the voice of teenagers, and it makes the whole book just flow, makes it so very smooth. That realness of teen emotions is just one among all the ways in which this book is fundamentally true. (Also, being able to write dialogues between your characters in a young adult book in a believable way is arguably the most important part of writing any YA story. So, kudos.)

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun is a joyful, love-ful book about & for gay teens. It will break your heart, but it will also tenderly put it back together & leave you with an overwhelming feeling of hope. It’s like a poet has said, “Cut me open and the light streams out. / Stitch me up and the light keeps streaming out between the stitches.”

So, have I convinced you that you want to read this book?