Under the Rainbow
Author: Celia Laskey
Publisher: Riverhead
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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
When a group of social activists arrive in a small town, the lives and beliefs of residents and outsiders alike are upended, in this wry, embracing novel.
Big Burr, Kansas, is the kind of place where everyone seems to know everyone, and everyone shares the same values-or keeps their opinions to themselves. But when a national nonprofit labels Big Burr "the most homophobic town in the US" and sends in a task force of queer volunteers as an experiment-they'll live and work in the community for two years in an attempt to broaden hearts and minds-no one is truly prepared for what will ensue.
Furious at being uprooted from her life in Los Angeles and desperate to fit in at her new high school, Avery fears that it's only a matter of time before her "gay crusader" mom outs her. Still grieving the death of her son, Linda welcomes the arrivals, who know mercifully little about her past. And for Christine, the newcomers are not only a threat to the comforting rhythms of Big Burr life, but a call to action. As tensions roil the town, cratering relationships and forcing closely guarded secrets into the light, everyone must consider what it really means to belong. Told with warmth and wit, Under the Rainbow is a poignant, hopeful articulation of our complicated humanity that reminds us we are more alike than we'd like to admit.
TL;DR Review
Under the Rainbow is about a task force of queer people who get sent to live in Kansas, in “the most homophobic town in America.” It’s part pain, part hope, and very, very good.
For you if: You want to read more queer stories, particularly those that that break and patch up your heart.
Full Review
Big thanks to Riverhead for sending me a copy of this book! You knew I’d love it!
Under the Rainbow is a multi-POV story — only one character has more than one chapter — told from the perspective of people living in Big Burr, Kansas, dubbed “the most homophobic town in America.” An inclusion-focused nonprofit sends a task force of queer people to live there for two years. Some of the POV characters are from the task force, but many of them are also people from Big Burr itself, or members of the task force’s family. Each chapter jumps us forward in time so that the book covers the whole two years.
This book is a mix of devastation and hopeful optimism. The result is a whiplash of emotions that left me unsure if I was happy or sad, if the task force’s pain was worth it or not. But what this book did do was illuminate how tangled up prejudice can be — how nothing is black and white, hateful people are people, and empathy from all sides will be indispensable if we’re ever going to make progress.
Some of the chapters do feel a little bit quintessential, and at first glance the characters can feel like stereotypes of themselves. But I was really impressed with the way Laskey gave them more dimension by the end of their chapters so that even if their trope felt expected, they managed to feel real. It was like … tidy, but not quite.
This one also felt like a really accessible mix of contemporary fiction and literary fiction. The focus on character and emotion, but it’s not super cerebral. Laskey also had some really great prose snippets from a words and craft perspective that made me dog-ear the page. I think this will be a popular one across the spectrum!
Trigger Warnings
Transphobia and trans misogyny / homophobia and heterosexism
Sexual assault / rape
Animal cruelty /death
Suicidal thoughts
Pregnancy
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