Jo hopes to start a radio youth ministry focusing on teens and acceptance, which is why she agrees to pass as straight after her radio star and pastor father remarries and they move to a very small, very conservative town in Georgia. Lesbians and religion are not topics seen very often in YA (and rarely in the same book, and definitely not in a positive light), but Brown manages to pull it off. The religious aspect of the book is never preachy or heavy-handed- it’s just a part of who Jo is. While she might struggle with intolerant churchgoers (and especially her new Step Grandmother), Jo’s love of God is as ingrained and steadfast as her love for girls.
Jo is an amazing character- she knows who she is, what she wants to do, and who she wants to love. But she’s also a teen girl who is uprooted from her Atlanta life and thrown into a new family and new town, far away from her friends and a more tolerant community. As heartbreaking as it is when her father, who has previously accepted and supported her, asks her to lay low her senior year, Jo accepts. She trades her truth for a radio show, one that has the potential to help other teens find acceptance and kindness in the Christian community. Jo loves her father and wants him to have a chance with his new bride and her ultra-conservative family. She has no plans to stay in Rome, Georgia, after she graduates. But she doesn’t plan on how it makes her feel to have to omit aspects of her life, which eventually leads to outright lying. Especially once she makes new friends, and then falls in love. Passing as straight is easier than she thought, and she kind of hates, kind of likes, how easy it is. Meanwhile, her bestie back home in Atlanta gets into some major trouble, and Jo’s relationship with her new stepmother changes. Of course, everything blows up, like you know it’s going to, but it’s how Jo puts things back together that is the real payoff. Maybe the ending is a bit too easy? I don’t know, but it’s one that I hope is realistic soon. So much love for this book!
Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown, (List Price: $11.99, HarperTeen, 9780062271006, May 2018)
Reviewed by Kate Towery, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
