Dance on My Grave

from the diary: “Sunday 11/23/86

“Just finished reading Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers. About a love affair between two teenage boys. But just as much about the reaction of one to the other’s death. Good but kinda depressing.”

I was trying to find gay fiction that wasn’t … um … tragic? I was not having much luck. As Michael Cart in his essay on young adult fiction says, a kid is looking for “the shock of recognition, the sudden, amazing realization that one is not alone, that there are others like me out there. [And] acceptance, [the hope] for happiness … for being loved and cared about ‘like everyone else.’” Cart calls the death in Dance on My Grave, “seemingly obligatory.”

I still remember Hal riding behind Barry on his motorcycle, Hal wrapping his arms around his daring boyfriend, the motor revving, the wind … ah love!