Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out: The uplifting, feel-good read of 2023

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CW: Suicide, threat of murder, homophobia, gaslighting, emotional abuse, toxic relationship, death of a parent, physical abuse, cancer, addiction, grief, abandonment of a child, abandonment of an elder.

There was no guidebook for this, no one to advise a seventy-nine-year-old on how to suddenly live the life he had only ever imagined in his head. A beautiful read…I picked up Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love to take with me on a weekend away. Ben, for obvious reasons, is less than impressed by this, since he’s had to work hard and pull himself up by the bootstraps to get here (he later reveals he was disowned by his parents for being gay.When 79-year-old Arthur Edwards gathers his family together to share some important news, no one is prepared for the bombshell he drops: he’s gay, and after a lifetime in the closet, he’s finally ready to come out. They really helped each other grow as characters and into their own identities as the book went along. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. Until then, I suppose at least younger readers will (probably) enjoy the Teddys and Bens of the fictional world.

It's not OTT, Ryan has only added a few homophobic elements but they're enough to get my blood boiling.Arthur and Teddy have always been close, and now they must navigate first loves, heartbreak, and finding their place in their community. Arthur and Teddy are Grandad and Grandson and they are going through the exact same thing but Arthur tells his family he’s Gay first leaving Teddy shocked at the news but even more wary of telling his family his own news because of the reaction his Grandad Arthur got. I liked Teddy's eventual romance plot, but again, I felt like the payoff was rushed and didn't quite give enough space to a narrative that is familiar to a lot of queer people.

The text can also be freely manipulated to allow readers to change every element such as text size, font, colour, line height and margins as suits their accessibility needs. An adorable and cute story, but I couldn’t really get into the book because I found the dialog to be forced and awkward…?

Alongside this depth there’s a lightness of touch too as Ryan Love has his characters create memories through simple moments and pleasures, as well as through the larger events, making the narrative feel familiar and real. Each of the characters are wonderfully part of the story - each with their own addition to Arthur’s and Teddy’s lives. As Teddy deals with a new job and colleague he might have feelings for, Arthur faces the opinions of the community he's lived in all his life. I just felt very meh throughout the book which is disappointing because I genuinely thought I would have liked this book from the synopsis. Despite the story being a little twee, I really enjoyed it and I would recommend it if you're looking for a comforting read that will tug at your heartstrings.

It's a real joy, even when in the pages of a novel, that hope warms your heart and you believe in romance again. This is a consciously feelgood book, determined that everyone should reform and be forgiven and everything should work out. I can't think of any other story I've read with a coming out story for a character of his age, but it's one that needed to be told. No one in the family is prepared when 79-year-old Arthur Edwards drops a bombshell: he's gay, and after a lifetime in the closet, he's finally ready to come out. The one thing Ben says about it is only in the sense that Teddy must have known earlier than this how he felt about Ben, but he kept stringing him along (fair!I honestly don’t think this book was either heartwarming nor lighthearted in the way that the author aimed for. Teddy in particular gets quite a confused ending where it feels like the book just ran out of space.