Music from Another World
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A master of award-winning queer historical fiction, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley brings to life an emotionally captivating story about the lives of two teen girls living in an age when just being yourself was an incredible act of bravery.
It’s summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can’t be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy’s only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk…until she’s matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything.
Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others—like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom—and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they’ll stand for…and who they’ll rise against.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1977, Anita Bryant and Harvey Milk are on the rise. Rising high school juniors Tammy and Sharon are too old for their summer pen-pal assignment, but they don't have a choice: class credit calls. Tammy's from an evangelical family in affluent Orange County; Sharon lives in San Francisco (the Catholic part, not the cool part), but they both love Patti Smith and are getting into punk rock. The girls are also keeping big secrets: Tammy's gay, and so is Sharon's brother Peter. Sharon tells her diary the stuff she wants to keep private; Tammy writes to Harvey Milk, the only openly gay person she's ever seen. When Tammy's life in her family's church becomes untenable and Sharon starts having unexpected feelings for girls, things get complicated and interesting. Talley (Pulp) specializes in LGBTQ-themed historical fiction, and she draws from rich material here: antigay ordinances hitting the ballot, Castro Street activism heating up. Tammy and Sharon and their growing friendship are believable and sympathetically rendered, and readers will root for them as they struggle to decide which is harder: staying in the closet or coming out. Ages 13 up.
