New Book Alert: It's A Gay Gay World by Tatiana Kolesnikov; Parallel World Reverses Gay and Straight Statuses Has An Interesting Premise But Also Raises Some Questions
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Tatiana Kolesnikov's YA novel, It's A Gay Gay World is the type of book that invites the characters and Readers to "see how the other half lives." To see what happens when the majority becomes the minority, when the LGBT and the straight communities switch places. Heterosexual people have to suffer the legal ramifications when they want to have rights that others take for granted. They have to be mocked with stereotypes and derisive comments from entertainment and even from friends and acquaintances. They could face ostracism from family, isolation, sentencing to conversion camps, and could be potentially injured or killed by people so driven by centuries of religious and social hatred towards others who aren't like them.
It's A Gay Gay World takes that premise and brings it up to eleven when two straight teens travel to a parallel dimension where
homosexuality is the majority and heterosexuality is the minority. It is an interesting idea that Kolesnikov brilliantly explores in her novel. However, the book does leave some questions in terms of plot and character.
High schooler, Katherine Borovsky and her boyfriend, Michael Morrow, wake up from a severe traffic collision to find a different world around them. Instead of her religious mother and father and kid sister, Katherine is greeted by her sister and two religious mothers. Instead of his bickering parents, Michael is welcomed by two loving fathers.
In what Katherine and Michael dub "The G World" (Gay as compared to the "S World" where they came from), sexes are completely segregated. Boys are raised by men and girls by women. Since homosexuality is the norm, what they dub "mixing" is forbidden even illegal. (In G World, even the terms gay and straight are reversed but to simplify things for this review, I will use the traditional meanings for both terms.)
Kolesnikov went into great detail about the history and current structure that would occur in such a world. At a church service, Katherine hears this parallel dimension's version of the Adam and Eve story. This world's interpretation is that the sin that Adam and Eve committed was not in disobedience but in having sexual intercourse. Pretty flimsy, but is it any flimsier than the actual excuses that centuries of people have used citing the Bible as justifications for their prejudices in this world?
While procreation is not ignored, that is the sole reason that G World authorities allow men and women to have sexual relations or it used to be. Now with IVF and surrogacy, there is no reason for that. Straight couples get sent to internment camps like Camp Stork where they are separated from the rest of society and are subjected to inhumane treatments. It's Camp Stork that eventually becomes the source of investigations when Anna, one of Katherine's mothers, Rick, an investigative reporter, and Daniel, a BFI (G World's version of the FBI) agent and Rick's husband, discover a potential conspiracy involving the camp and immigrant straight couples.
The details aren't just found in the main plot.
When Katherine and Michael compare notes with their friends (and in G World, Michael's boyfriend and Katherine's girlfriend), Travis and Sydney, they find that G World's population is much smaller than the overpopulated world in which they came from.
They also discover other clever facts about this parallel dimension such as that Sydney and Travis have never heard of Facebook, but MySpace is still the most important social media site. The current President in G World is Belinda Floyd, a woman who was a former movie star and is known for her progressive policies. Hurricanes only go up to Category Three. Many of these details aren't really important to the overall narrative, but they show how seriously Kolesnikov took the different aspects between dimensions.
This conspiracy develops many of the characters such as Elizabeth, Katherine's mother, who was at first appalled by her daughter being straight but then goes into full Defcon 1 Protective Mom mode when Katherine is threatened. Katherine's discomfort towards Anna thaws as before she refused to acknowledge her because Katherine missed her S World father. However, after Anna not only infiltrates Camp Stork but defends Katherine from attack, the teen lovingly refers to her as Mom like she does Elizabeth.
Besides the teen protagonists, many of the other characters are developed as well. Rick and Daniel are a loving couple who are good at their careers. They use those careers to help others such as investigating murders connected to Camp Stork and helping Nadia and Marek, an immigrant couple, who are kidnapped and sent there.
One of the best characters is Dominique Sullivan, a physics professor who provides details to Katherine, Michael, Sydney, and Travis about travel from parallel universes, something that he experienced first hand. Like Katherine and Michael, Sullivan came from S World decades ago. However, as an African-American gay man, he found love and acceptance in G World, particularly with his husband, David, so he decided to stay. However, Sullivan is not blind to the problems in his adopted home dimension so he also takes part in infiltrating Camp Stork.
It's A Gay Gay World is a great book but it offers some intriguing questions, perhaps for Kolesnikov to explore in a sequel, particularly since this book's conclusion is open ended. This book only refers to heterosexuality and homosexuality. Since gender and sexuality are constructs and are more fluid than that, it would be interesting to see how It's A Gay Gay World explores that possibility in G World. How are bisexuals treated in G World? (There are some indications that one of the characters is bisexual, but it is never outright stated.) What about transgenders, especially with how rigid cis males and females are segregated in this reality? These are other possibilities that could be explored in the future.
Katherine and Michael are aware that they are being discrimated against in this world to the point that Katherine makes a public plea for acceptance but they don't seem to make any comparisons towards their behavior in S World. There are some subtle implications that the two teens weren't exactly paragons of understanding and tolerance towards LGBT people in S World. Michael mentions that he felt uncomfortable towards a male friend who came out of the closet and began to phase him out. Katherine's first scene in G World shows her at a church service and she makes plenty of comments about her family's Christian background in both worlds. Their evolving feelings towards LGBT people could be illustrated in Katherine's growing acceptance towards Anna in her lives and their easy friendship towards many of the other G World citizens, but it would be interesting to see how this trip changes their beliefs once they return to S World.
Speaking of Katherine and Michael in S World, we learn that both worlds have the same people. While the teen couple are wandering around another dimension that isn't theirs, so are an alternate version of Michael and Katherine, both of whom are gay and are just as out of place as their counterparts. They will no doubt be subjected to homophobia and hate crimes.
One of the most unfortunate implications concerns G World's Michael and his parents. That Michael left a world with two happily married fathers who loved their son and he clearly reciprocated that love. The S World's Michael lives with constantly fighting parents who give their son a toxic home environment. Since this volume involved a lot of Katherine's family, if Kolesnikov writes another volume set in S World, Michael's family should receive a stronger look that focuses on that conflict.
It's A Gay Gay World is an interesting premise that hopefully will be explored more on a future date. It presents an interesting look at both worlds.
