Despite having one of the most popular YA books of 2022, Sonora Reyes had never published a novel before. Inspired by their friends and background in fan fiction, Reyes decided to complete the National Novel Writing Month challenge by creating an original work. "I got peer-pressured into writing my original novel, because all my friends were writing original books, so I was like, 'Okay, I'll do it,'" they said.
After just one month, they completed a finished draft of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School and decided to send it off for queries. Looking back, Reyes realizes they should have given the draft a few more rounds of edits, but the novel still managed to draw interest from a few agents after the first round of queries.
"It sold pretty quickly. It was a wild ride, especially because I had just gotten top surgery the day before I got my first call from an agent, so I thought it was a dream in my pain-medicine-induced haze," they said. "It didn't feel real at all."
Despite all the post-op drugs, they still managed to send the necessary emails and sign an agent. "I was on pain meds for so long, but I did everything I was supposed to do," they said with a laugh.
Processing Catholic school during NaNoWriMo
When Reyes first sat down to write a novel over the course of a month, they had to pick a topic they knew a lot about.
"I wanted to write about something I knew I could talk about for 50,000 words, at least, without having to stop and think or... research," they explained. They decided to write about Catholic schools in order to reexamine a lot of their own growing-up experiences and trauma.
"I wrote about something that I had to process, so that I could do my processing in the book," they said.
They did not intend to write a YA or coming-of-age story, but as Reyes began to process their childhood trauma, they realized that was the natural direction of the book. It had been ten years since Reyes attended Catholic high school. They found the process of looking back at their experiences very eye-opening and ultimately cathartic.
"I wanted to heal my teenage self, and in doing that, I wrote a coming-of-age story," they said. "It was just the story that ended up healing me. I needed to tell it at that moment. I needed to use it to process all my stuff."
The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School connects with readers who have experienced being Queer in a religious community. Religion adds a lot of complexities to the Queer experience and can cause people to internalize hatred and shame.
"[Catholic school] provides a good foil [to queerness], because a lot of religious institutions are not as friendly to queerness," Reyes explained. "In religious communities, it can feel very isolating, even though there are many Queer people present. Catholic school showed me that I needed to be quiet about my queerness and not be seen or heard. That was how I could be accepted."
The world needs more intersectional stories
The book also connects with readers who, like Reyes, experience multiple intersections of marginality. Reyes did not intend for the book to be a tool to teach intersectionality, but it reflects the experiences they share with others in the LGBTQ+ community. "I wasn't necessarily going into it to explore the overlap [of Queer and Latinx identities], but I have the overlap in myself, so it just came naturally," they said.
Many books take on just one aspect of marginalization, but in 2023 that is not reflective of the world. People are more complex, and our identities overlap to inform our experiences. "It's necessary for more stories to have intersectionality in them, because we exist. Many people can't identify with a story about a white cis Gay man or a white cis Gay woman. If it's a Queer person of color or a Queer mentally ill person of color or a disabled person of color, there are all these different intersections that can come into play."
Reyes believes that telling stories about intersectionality helps people see that their existence goes beyond just their race, sexuality, or gender. When LGBTQ+ stories only center on white, cis, neurotypical protagonists, other community members often feel isolated or invisible, as if their Queer experiences don't count.
Reyes tells stories that will resonate with audiences excluded from typical YA bookshelves. Because of that, they wanted to work hard to provide LGBTQ+ characters that readers could relate to. They spent a lot of time working on how they depicted certain LGBTQ+ characters and wanted to avoid stereotypes.
"With Yami, I felt very confident in her character. I didn't feel worried about it, just because I felt so firmly that this was how I wanted to write her. If anybody didn't like it, it wouldn't bother me," they said.
Avoiding Queer stereotypes
Despite being so confident in Yami's character, Reyes worried that other Queer characters might fall into stereotypes.
"I wanted to get it right, because I know stereotypes around this identity that I didn't want to play into. I wanted to make sure that they were a fully well-rounded person who was [also] a messy person. They're teenagers. They're not going to be the perfect example of their sexuality. They're not supposed to be on a pedestal or anything like that."
While they tried to avoid stereotypes, Reyes admits that sometimes characters, like real people, do fall into being clichés. According to Reyes, the best way to avoid writing stereotypical characters is to include multiple LGBTQ+ and BIPOC characters.
"We're not supposed to be a monolith. If you've got multiple Queer characters and one of them fits into a stereotype, I think that's okay, because you've got a whole cast," they explained.
A message to anyone in the closet
Writing a YA book means connecting with vulnerable audiences. While The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School is full of insights about intersectionality, religious trauma, and individuality, Reyes hopes readers take away the message about coming out.
"Being closeted doesn't mean you're not authentically you," they said. "It doesn't mean you're living a lie. It just means that you're waiting for your moment to share something that you don't owe to anyone. It's all up to you, how you share that, and when you share that. If someone takes that from you, you can take that back."
In the book, Yami reclaims her moment after being outed by an ex-friend. Reyes hopes her story can inspire the LGBTQ+ community to look at the closet differently.
"She goes back into the closet, which a lot of people would think is a negative thing, but for her, it's a chance to have a do-over. It's a chance to do it on her terms when she's ready, but she wasn't ready," Reyes explained.
Reyes wants closeted people to know that they are still a part of the LGBTQ+ community, they are still valid, and they are still supported, even if they're still figuring themselves out. "It's okay to be closeted longer than other people are. It's okay to not tell everyone all the time," they said. "As long as you take your safety and well-being into account first, that's the most important thing."
Sweet revenge
Reyes is continuing to write empowering stories for LGBTQ+ readers. Their next novel, The Luis Ortega Survival Club, comes out on May 23. This book is about Ariana, an autistic Bisexual heroine struggling to understand her complex feelings around a trauma she has endured.
"She's not sure if she has the right to feel any kind of way about it," Reyes explained.
Throughout the book, Ariana discovers a found family and forges a strong bond over a shared desire for revenge.
Unlike most revenge fantasies, The Luis Ortega Survival Club doesn't preach forgiveness. "A lot of revenge media sees the person getting revenge as evil. They're tainted by their desire. That's not this book," Reyes said. "[Luis] deserves what's coming to him. He's going to get what's coming to him, and [the revenge seekers are] the righteous ones for doing it."
This is also a fantasy novel. Often, readers want to know why, in a world where anything can happen, Ariana still experiences such trauma.
Reyes replies, "My answer is that I think a lot of traumatized people, their fantasy isn't necessarily that the trauma never happened. A lot of us can't picture ourselves without that trauma. Some of us might be able to, but for me, I can't. For me, the fantasy isn't that it never happened. For me, it's what if this still happened — but now I get to win in the end. I still get my happy ending, apart from this trauma. I still get everything I want."
Reyes is changing the YA genre, writing books that show young people that it's okay to feel big things, seek revenge, and question authority. They can't imagine writing a novel that isn't LGBTQ+ down to the core, because they write about the world they want to live in.
The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School is out now. Grab a copy from your local bookstore and read along with us! The Luis Ortega Survival Club will be available at bookstores everywhere on May 23, 2023.