When You Get the Chance

Road trip! Tom Ryan and Robin Stevenson combine family drama and PRIDE in When You Get The Chance!

Quote: “I'm a part of this. These are my people, this is my community. I may not know exactly how I identify or whatever, but pretty sure that whatever I am, there's a place for me under this great big queer rainbow.” (Loc. 1536)

Ryan and Stevenson give us two very different types of main characters with gay Mark and lesbian Talia. Mark, to me, is a very unlikeable character. He is selfish, self-absorbed, lazy, and just an all around asshole. (laugh) Talia is feisty, world aware, hard-working, and filled with teenage angst.

Mark and Talia, cousins, showcase the extremes of the teenage attitude regarding life and being a rainbow. Mark's actions prod the story along, but it is Talia's emotions that display the story's heart.

Ryan and Stevenson tackle a wide range of issues from elder care, death, homophobia, LGBTQ+ history, gender and sexual identity, and the “rules' ‘ of the rainbow. This sounds like a lot of baggage, but Ryan and Stevenson blend it seamlessly.

Do not let the cover fool you, When You Get A Chance is a story with depth and written with both main characters voices. We get Mark's drive to experience the rainbow rully and Talia's search for self amidst heartbreak. Both stories are about change. Change of oneself and the evolving history of the rainbow through the secondary characters that Mark and Talia meet on their journey to self-awareness.

I really detest Mark (laugh). I think it is because I see so much of myself in Talia. I know people like Mark and Talia. Ryan and Stevenson give us realistic fiction with no easy answers. Just like life.

What makes this story worthwhile to read is all of the characters combined. Flaws, humor, pain, history, and the best moments appear under the rainbow.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

Let's focus on the narrators first. This book is narrated by two people – cousins. One's Mark, and the other Talia (whose name I forgot for a few seconds. I only remembered Mark's because his is on a Note on my Kindle as my Notes are currently pulled up). And I felt both narrators were pretty boring. I liked Talia a tiny bit more, but that was it.

I mean, Mark, to me, felt so self-centered and boring and privileged and just, sorry, but boring again. Like instead of helping around the house he decides to have fun. He should've paid more attention to Paige, seriously. He tries to act funny but it just fails. Talia, while the (slight) better of the two narrator, tries to act like she's awkward and cool at the same time and it only makes her look more awkward and not in that cool type of way. While she is very proud of her identity, and she can most certainly be, it just felt like she was pushing all her ideas and opinions onto other people and trying to make them think like her. And people don't feel the same way and that's okay!

I love this cover so much. The font's super cool, the rainbow road and the car, all so great. But... that's about it. The third star is solely for the cover. Paige is mostly the reason why I didn't star it lower – she was at least funny, adorable, and she reads Magnus Chase so ☝