Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow - Benjamin Dean

There are 2 reasons why a a proof copy jumps to the top of my to be read pile: I know/love the author and have been eagerly anticipating the book, or the plot intrigues me so much I am desperate to dive straight in and read it.  Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow fell into the second category and I most definitely was not disappointed!  In fact, I devoured it in one sitting, reading the end of it by torch-light in bed as I couldn't put it down!  

Archie Albright is just your average boy who is trying to navigate his way through high school as best he can with his two best friends, Seb and Bell.  By his own admission, he isn't the most popular or the cleverest in school, in fact he feels as though he's bumbling along somewhere near the bottom of the pecking order, but he has his friends.  Things at home, however, have become very different and confusing of late as his dad has moved out and is arguing with his his mum a lot.  Something is wrong but they won't tell Archie what it is.  When Archie overhears a conversation between his parents after a particularly embarrassing incident at parents' evening, he discovers that his dad is gay.  Struggling to understand how this will change everything in his life, Archie turns to his friends and his neighbour Oscar for help.  But then stumbling on a flier his dad has dropped in his car, leads Archie, along with Seb and Bell, on an adventure they will never forget to London and Gay Pride, in search of the answers Archie is looking for.

This really is the most wonderful, heart-warming book I have read in a while.  From the very beginning, you feel for Archie: his parents are doing that classic thing of keeping things from him; Archie believes it's to protect him, but in this instance, it's simply because his dad doesn't know how to talk to him about what's happening - cue some very awkward conversations between the pair where I simply wanted to reach into the book and help them both out!  Archie has so many questions when he finds out the truth, but just doesn't know how to ask his dad and doesn't want to upset his mum any more (who seems to switch between hiding the fact that she's been crying and going into hyper-drive cooking mode!).  Instead he turns to his neighbour and babysitter, Oscar, who is in 6th form and who is also gay.  Oscar is a wonderful character and the cake metaphor he uses to explain Archie's dad to him is wonderful (see chapter 9!).  Seb and Bell are two of the best friends anybody could have: they are there for Archie whenever he needs them and understand when he is upset.  In fact, their friendship runs all the way to doing something that Seb most definitely is terrified of: heading to London on their own to watch the Gay Pride parade.

I've never been to Gay Pride but, after reading about it in this book, all I wanted to do was hop on a train and head down to be part of the action.  The crowds, the atmosphere, the friendliness and the characters were portrayed in such a way that made me feel like I was already in the middle of it and also made me want to head down and experience it in real-life.  With a host of colourful and wonderful characters becoming embroiled in the adventure (I wanted to hug Lester and Michael when they turned up, was desperate to meet Buttercup and Viv just sounded like the sort of mum everybody would want to have), this is an unputdownable book full of colour and pride that teaches us to celebrate diversity in all its wonderful glory.  

Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow is a book with love at its heart that I truly believe everybody should read.  It's a funny, heart-warming hug in paper format that will brighten your winter/lockdown days; it navigates LGBTQ+ brilliantly, is about understanding and accepting everyone for who they are and shows us that it's ok to be yourself.

As it says on the back of the proof copy, the book is 'coming out February 2021' (the 4th to be exact) and I urge everybody to ore-order it.  It's most definitely a 5 star read for me!