Annie on My Mind
by Nancy Garden
Fantastic. It's obvious why Annie On My Mind is a classic, and it's not only because this was one of the very first YA books with gay main characters and a happy ending. I don't usually enjoy straight-up (ha) romance stories, but Gardener avoids the usual obnoxious style where it's obvious how the characters are going wrong and they're oblivious. Instead, when Liza and Annie argue, it's complicated by homophobia and Liza is, at least in retrospect, thoughtful and realistic.
The scene where their secret relationship is discovered is like a punch in the stomach. But the morality isn't totally clear cut, and Annie and Liza struggle to keep their guilt about things that are legitimately their fault disentangled from the things that their society is guilty for and from the guilt one feels about being gay.
The ending could have felt rushed, but it didn't to me. I was as delighted as they were. I would protest about how it's their first relationship and those usually don't last forever, but in the interview with Nancy Gardner in the back, she explains that she married her high school girlfriend, so it's understandable!
One thing that did bother me all out of proportion to how prominent it was was an extended metaphor towards the end with white=good, pure and black=evil, twisted. Made me think of the MLK speech.