What I mostly remember from the Vanyel books was that everyone spent inordinate amounts of time explaining to each other about how it was OK to be gay, and less time actually showing that, which struck me as an unbalanced way of doing that, and which could have been rewritten to be better.

Aaaaand then over a decade ago I managed to get in an argument on the internet with a man who insisted that EVERY WORD WAS PERFECT AND NOTHING SHOULD BE CHANGED because the book really helped him to cope with being a gay teen. Lesson learned: do not argue details of writing and editing with someone who is speaking from a deeply emotional and personal stance. (I am very happy that he found the right book at the right time! It doesn't mean the books couldn't have been better.)