Spin Me Right Round

Spin Me Right Round

YA fiction
It's Luis' senior year and he rules Antic Springs Academy, a
prep school a little on the conservative side. There's no Gay
Straight Alliance. Dress codes are built on the binary. Only
heterosexual couples will be admitted to prom. This really riles Luis
who wants to share the special night with his boyfriend, Cheng.
Luis' mother is sympathetic to a point. She doesn't see losing
out on "a dance" as a major tragedy. She believes that the school is
protecting gay students. She'd gone there back in the day. A gay
student, Chaz Wilson, had been found dead the day after her prom.
"Chaz Wilson is my ghost of gayness past. I mean, not
literally--no skinny Black boy with violet eyes appears in my mirror
or emerges from the shadows when no one else is looking. But he
haunts my life like nobody's business even so."
Chaz is about to become a lot more than a ghost in Luis' life.
Luis gets knocked unconscious. When he wakes up he's not in the
hospital, but at his school in the 80's as in when his parents were
teens. Chaz is still alive. Luis' dad is one of the biggest bullies
on campus.
So now, in addition to his prom dilemma, Luis has some pretty
urgent mandates: keeping Chaz alive past prom, somehow getting back to
his own time, and not putting his parents to be on a trajectory that
will lead to his not being born.
David Valdes' Spin Me Right Round combines a roller coaster
suspenseful plot and engaging characters with some pretty deep
insight. It was one of my most enjoyable recent reads.
On a purrrsonal note, for some reason I'd been assuming that I'd still
be going as part of my church delegation to the Poor People's Campaign
event in Washington DC on June 18. I'd managed to ride a little over
an hour. Since my operation isn't until September and I still have to
pee too frequently day and night a day of marching bookended by two
all night bus rides does not feel like a good idea even if everything
goes well. And recently police in large cities have been going
ballistic on peaceful protesters with clubs, tear gas, and rubber
bullets. Not to mention jail. I had committed myself to going
before my kidney stone turned exam week into a nightmare. I emailed
the group about why I can't go. I feel no regret whatsoever. (Jules)
I am very glad she isn't going and taking all those risks. She needs
to be in good shape for her internship. (Tobago).
A great big shout out goes out to the people who will be uniting in DC
from all around the country.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway






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