Cover Image: Under the Rainbow

Under the Rainbow

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Member Reviews

I appreciated the sentiment behind this book but it just felt very American, and not in the best way unfortunately.

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A fascinating read, packed full of stories for every character. This book doesn’t hold back and is absorbing in every way. I really enjoyed this style of writing, it’s not one I would normally go for. An honest and brilliant read.

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I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I always like to request LGBTQ books as there aren’t that many that are just ordinary books. This was an ok book in my opinion. I wasn’t blown away by it.

Starz: 💫💫💫

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Interesting story which would make for great book club discussion. Felt a bit disjointed as you moved from one character to the next quite quickly.

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Each chapter is dedicated to a different character which is great but also doesn't allow for much character development. The stories are intertwined so you do get little snippets of other characters as the book moves along. But you are definitely left wanting to know more.

I liked how it ended ten years in the future, allowing the reader to see what Big Burr was like after the task force left. Overall, I did really enjoy this. A quick, runny and heartfelt read that leaves you wanting to know more!

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The fictional town of Big Burr, Kansas has been deemed as the most homophobic town. A task force, AAA (Acceptance Across America) arrived in Big Burr to try to show the residents that the LGBTQ community all feel love, hate and hurt the same as everybody else.

The task force is set to stay in town for two years and the story spans this time through the eyes of different characters from the town.

Each chapter tells a little of the characters life and their views on AAA being in town, but each characters story just seems to stop without any real ending. Don't expect their story to pick up later in the book - it doesn't meaning that you don't know "what happened next".

I'm not sure this book truly deals with the prejudice the LGBTQ community face on a daily basis which is a shame and a little disappointing

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A timely and observant début, Celia Laskey’s Under the Rainbow is a YA fiction novel that takes its name from the song ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ from the film The Wizard of Oz, which has long had connections to the LGBTQIA+ community.

In this interesting novel, homophobia in the United States of America is under the microscope as the fictional town of Big Burr, Kansas is deemed the “most homophobic town in America” after extensive research by AAA (Acceptance Across America) into their attitudes, legislation, and even combing the inhabitants’ social media. In response, AAA decides to send a queer task force to the town, where they will live for two years, in an attempt to influence the town’s people for the better.

A group of queer activists and their families arrive in Big Burr and, as expected, many of the locals are not happy to meet them. Everything is about to change but whether it’s for the best or for the worst, some people can’t agree.

The story of Under the Rainbow spans predominately over the two years the task force resides in Big Burr, while the final chapter picks up ten years later to show the results of the queer task force on the neighbourhood.

Almost every chapter is told through the eyes of a different character, some of which are old residents and some of which are newcomers from AAA. Through this storytelling, the reader gets to understand a diverse range of attitudes and emotions, from acceptance to ignorance to denial to outright homophobia and bigotry. The various characters’ lives and stories overlap and weave together to create a complete picture of the events that unfold during those two years in Big Burr. However, by flicking from one character to another, readers do miss out on the smaller details of the characters’ personal stories, and I would happily have read more about their lives.

A necessary tale of what it is like to be an LGBTQIA+ person living in a place or world that aggressively disagrees with your very existence. Under the Rainbow is an easy-to-read, fresh yet emotional, heartwrenching, and heartwarming novel that sees new friendships and connections blossom, and tensions reach boiling point in this experiment to change hearts and minds.

For some readers, content warnings for this novel include; homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, biphobia, and discussions of suicidal thoughts.

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Under the Rainbow tells the story of small minded small town Big Bur and the events that unfold when the LGBTQ+ activist task force, Acceptance Across America (AAA), arrive in an attempt to broaden the minds of those around them.

The book is based on a collection of interconnected stories told from a series of points of views of the residents of Big Bur and the members of AAA. As each story unfolds it is clear to see that the AAA have a huge uphill battle on their hands as there is a large amount of deep rooted bigotry in parochial Big Bur. Slowly, one by one we are left into the minds and lives of those who call Big Bur home, both existing and new residents and we begin to see they all have a lot more in common than they would like to think.

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the staunch Big Bur heads against the free thinking taskforce and found it showed a lot of the harmful stereotypes that exist. The book is full of a multitude of flippant comments such as "too pretty to be lesbians", "at least it's not two men" and "but you look like a nice girl" and I think they're thrown about deliberately to make the reader realise just how easily these type of comments are thrown about in everyday society.

The book isn't without flaws there's one particular chapter which is literally your stereotypical male fantasy of two lesbians detailed which seemed pretty gratuitous.

Books like these I think are a great starting point for conversations and to get different groups of people talking, especially those who are a little bit more reluctant to read books on the topic of the LGBTQ+ community.

I switched between the book and the audiobook and both worked perfectly. The audiobook is absolutely fantastic with a full cast for each of the characters and it really brings the flaws of some of the characters to life.

A really enjoyable look at small town views and how sometimes with work they can be changed for the better.

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I read this book for a blog tour.

http://ramblingmads.com/2021/12/10/blog-tour-under-the-rainbow-celia-laskey/

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This is a new author for me. This book has been on my radar because it sounded like a lot of fun. I liked some things about Under the Rainbow but some aspects of the book didn’t work for me. The main issue I had is that I didn’t really like any of the characters, locals and LGBTQ+ activists alike. I didn’t feel a connection to any of them. I need to get behind at least one character to completely enjoy a book. The book is structured more like a collection of stories about these characters rather than a cohesive novel. The stories told in this book and subject tackled are important but it didn’t work on every level for me.

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A bit of a frustrating book this was for me - it started off really well and I was just starting to get into it when the story suddenly stopped and we moved onto a different story. This continued to happen and occasionally we'd revisit that character but then they'd be the minor person in that chapter. And then we jumped in time missing huge chunks of storyline not always filled in either.

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A group of gay activists move into a small town - know as the most homophobic town in the US. What happens to the residents that already live there? Lives change dramatically and people realise they have been living a life of lies until now.

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‘Under the Rainbow’ is a book that will definitely stay on my mind for a while. I ended up having a little mixed feelings on the whole, and I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of the characters in Celia Laskey’s book, but I still think it’s an important book to read. It deals with hard topics, and depicts some terrible human behaviour, and while I would like to say that it remains hopeful throughout (and in some ways, it indeed does), it’s also extremely realistic, raw, blant and honest.

For me, ‘Under the Rainbow’ felt a little bit like a collection of short stories, narrated through the eyes of people who just moved to Big Burr (LGBTQ+ activists) and locals alike. While the stories are connected and the overall narrative moves forward, ‘Under the Rainbow’ still felt more like a collection of moments and shipsets of different lives and stories than one overarching narrative. It’s something I personally enjoyed, but at the same time, it meant I haven’t felt as connected to any of the characters.

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I don't fall into the LGTBQ category, but have friends who do, so like to read books like this when I get the chance.
The chapters in the book are narrated by different people and there are a lot of different characters in the book, which took me a while to sort out who was who in my head. The town where the book is set is in Kansas, supposedly the most Gay hating place in the US. The AAA get to spend two years there to educate people to change attitudes. There are descriptions of discrimination which are quite horrifying . It wasn't until later in the book that you come to realize that 10 years have passed, which changed the perspectives of the start of the book slightly for me.
I did not think I was going to enjoy the book as much as I did. In the beginning there were some attitudes on both sides which were discriminatory, that a Gay mother would have preferred her daughter to also be gay . But as the main characters developed, I enjoyed the book very much. The message is, of course, about rights for all, whatever the sexuality (or colour) , something I care about. Some anecdotes were, I felt irrelevant, some showed just how nasty people can be , regardless of their sexual orientation.
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51846014-under-the-rainbow

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I really enjoyed this story! It didnt always represent issues in exactly the way I wanted, but I think it provides some valuable commentary on social justice work, and also a good read.
4/5

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I'm not really sure what I thought of this book. I found it confusing to read particularly in the early chapters. As others gave said many of the chapters stood alone as short stories all linked to the same town it wasn't at all what I had expected. It raised some interesting points but I don't feel able to recommend it. I'm sorry to say this.

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An interesting read in some ways but found it a little complicated at times Thought it was a book of short stories as the chapters were told by different characters and I got a bit lost but then it all came together and started to make sense. It wasn't really my kind of book but glad I stuck with it ,think it will appeal to some people more than others

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More a series of short stories than a novel, or not even short stories, more personal reflections from each character. Not much in the way of joining together. It was very difficult to follow a timeline. You could go from a major event and then meet the character six months later. OK you saw how their life was affected but it became like reading a report rather than feeling involved with the characters. This did nothing for me. #netgalley #undertherainbow

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Despite what the blurb says, this is not a story with solid overriding arc but a collection of short stories in a common setting that are tenuously linked.

I found the structure messy to be honest, the various characters stories cut off too abruptly, and too little connection between them all for me to feel attached.

The book is full of good intentions and some of the stories did pack an emotional punch, but I also felt a lot of judgement in others. Overall I feel like the author set out to cover too many perspectives on the subject and therefore no plotline or character felt developed.

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Was it a page-turner? It was for me. Perhaps not in the way that a fast-paced thriller would have been but I became involved in the lives of the all characters so quickly that I could hardly put the book down.

Did the book meet my expectations? I must admit that I thought this was going to be a work of non-fiction! This misconception was entirely my fault: I saw a rainbow, I read ‘queer activists’ in the synopsis and I joined dots that were not there! Fiction or non-fiction, I bloody loved this book! The characters felt authentic and, while the ending might be perceived to be too neat and pretty, I wouldn’t change it one bit. After all, it DOES get better!

Three words to describe it. Emotional. Funny. Hopeful.

Do I like the cover? I’ve seen two covers and I like them both but my favourite is the one with the rainbow over the signage for Big Burr.

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