Frank, Concise, Informative
The title of the book might lead you to think it'd be full of flowery language and verbose descriptions of wistful expressions of love, but you'd be pretty wrong. In fact, Freymann-Weyr is downright frugal when it comes to her writing style. She is carefully frank, consistently gets to the point, and casually informative, like a 1980s afterschool special on Lifetime. Check it out:
People used to think that being gay was a mental illness, but doctors (especially psychiatrists) no longer believe that. Even if Mr. and Mrs. Wentworth aren't fit to be parents, I've never heard Mom call them stupid. I ask James if his parents know that reasonable people don't think being gay is a mental illness.
"They do know," he says. "They send me so I can make my own choices without being influenced by their deep desire that I be straight." (7.47-48)
Can't you just picture the soft lighting, calm orchestra music, and our helpfully enlightening characters oddly clothed in an all-pastel color palette? If you've never seen an old-school Lifetime special, hopefully you can still zero in on the fact that Freymann-Weyr manages to convey info clearly and concisely here, helping us understand that time period the book is set in as well as the characters' experiences.