Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruits -parent book review -GHAPS library
After joining other in-district parents in what we’ve deemed “The Smutty Book Task Force”, I picked this book from the list of reads currently available in the GHAPS high school library; available for students ages 14-18.
This is a love story about two high school girls, Joanna and Mary Carlson. Joanna moves to a rural town in Georgia after her “progressive” pastor father, marries his third wife, (whom Joanna refers to as “Three”). Before moving, Joanna is asked to hide the fact that she’s a lesbian because the conservative Christians in their new community (as well as in laws), it is supposed, will judge her harshly and treat her badly if they know she’s openly gay.
The story begins at the wedding reception of the father and new step mom, “Three”. Openly gay Joanna is hanging out with her openly gay friend Dana. Within the first few pages we understand that Dana is upset about the “dry wedding”, even though she’s not at the legal age to drink, she decides that “she’s not staying sober” so decides to bring in her own flask.
The conversation gets inappropriate early on:
“Dana’s eyes hone in on my new stepmoms 32 year old ass. She elbows me, “Threes a total MILF (Mother I’d like to fuck).
“Put your pecker back in your pants party girl”, Joanna tells her and then fills us in on how she’s less promiscuous then Dana is.
By the end of the page 6, Dana has managed to start flirting with a “late twentyish, early thirtyish bi-curious cougar “named Jen. They meet quickly and flirt, “Cougar Jen” as they call her, is actually openly growling as her sexual appetite ramps up for the high school girl who is equally reciprocating, if not initiating it. They end up in the hallway of the reception area with this high school girl making out with the adult woman (thirtyish) with the young girls hand up “Cougar Jens” skirt. The Christian conservative grandmother sees this and isn’t pleased. We’re led to believe it’s because they are gay. There is zero mention of the disparity in age that this high school girl was just seen in a sexual manner openly with an adult. No point is made about this at all actually.
The story continues with the pastor’s daughter moving to a more rural town in Georgia (contrasted with her progressive current home of Atlanta) with her dad and new step mom, Three. She’s asked to hide her “identity” from everyone in her new school and the “Evangelical Christian Conservatives”. They are the clear antagonist throughout the story. The model for this template is given early on with the illustration of the disapproving Grandmother; she is used to represent how bigoted and homophobic this new community will be by her disapproval of what she witnessed at the wedding between the high school girl and adult called “Cougar Jen”.
The rest of the book is the story of the newly closeted Joanna joining a Baptist youth group and being surrounded by a new group of high school friends. No one knows of her lesbian “identity”. She ends up falling in love with one of the girls who reciprocates her crush. The “straight Christian” girls talk in a pretty crude way about their own sexual exploits with their boyfriends and drinking. But when they see two other girls kissing while they’re all out during a school play, the “straight Christian evangelical” friends grasp at the crosses hanging around their necks and talk about how unnatural and sinful it is. Christians who hold to biblical concepts are referred to as “ignorant”, “dumb”, trapped in the dark ages”. I believe there are actually a few references throughout the book to these girls “clutching at the crosses around their necks” when they hear of anyone being gay. The negative stereotypes of Christians actually amuse me throughout the book , they’re pretty bad.
The main character is determined to utilize her father’s Christian radio station to convince these backwards thinking people of how wrong they are. She prays to “God”, and the “Goddess”, she uses Christian language and the bible to explain why being gay is biblical, citing the bible only references homosexuality one time in Leviticus (inaccurate) and “never says anything about sex, or love, or long term commitments”. Then she attempts to biblically defend homosexuality by pointing out their inability to abstain from Levitical laws given to Hebrew people, like abstaining from shellfish and tattoos. It’s too bad she didn’t make a point about the lewd behavior, drinking, and premarital sex her straight friends were engaging in, it would have been a better argument.
The father, who is a pastor, eventually confronts the antagonist Christian grandmother by telling her “Come on now Virginia, the youth have a different way of looking at things, the world is changing, and some of those changes need to be interpreting the Bible for our current times. We can’t live our life based on a doctrine written 2,000 years ago. It’s like jamming a square peg in a round hole.”
The book is chocked full of F words, multiple other swear words, really bad theology, intimate heavy make out scenes between characters, and talk of intercourse, oral sex and drinking with its straight characters.
“But I give the best blowjobs when I’m sloppy. And my Jake does like his…” the straight evangelical bigoted Christian character is justifying her need for having alcohol.
What else did I learn from reading this book? GSA meetings “are just places to hookup" for sex, and locker rooms are the stuff lesbian girls fantasies are made of. ——from the book.
I wouldn’t want my kids reading this book, and would want to be notified before they had access to it. I was mostly disturbed by the illegal pedophilic make out scene between the adult and high school girl in the beginning of this book and couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why any author would intentionally write that, in a way that made it seem like it was normal and fun, for an audience recommended for 12-18 years of age. It seems more appropriate for college students and older, not for 14 year old’s in their public school library. I would recommend a parent have a conversation with their child if they’ve already had access to this.
Does Grand Haven have equally sexual and profane books like this in their libraries that are not LGBTQ themed? I’ve come across one to date, and I would like to know if there are more which is why I’ve asked them to flag them for parent consent. I’d like to point out this particular book, even though it was in the LGBTQ genre, had inappropriate situations with both gay and straight characters. It would be beneficial for GHAPS schools to do the work and let the parents know what books, irrespective of LGBTQ or not, have sexually explicit content like this and require parental consent for all minors.