guywho_reads's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book. It was short and to the point which was both good and bad for me. I found pleasing aspects in both James & Alex, but I feel like something was missing. The plot was predictable but very pleasant to read. The book as a whole is wholesome. It culminates to a happy ending for all the characters including first love, College acceptance, & tightening family bonds.
finlaaaay's review against another edition
3.0
I got this from the bookshop "Gay's the Word" in London. About two years ago. I think I've had some kind of depression stopping me from actually reading all the shit I buy or something. Anyway, I've read it now!
Anyway the book was fine, a gay coming out/coming of age story, but nothing special for me. The printing was a bit crap, to be honest - on many pages the letters were out of line with each other.
The first chapter, where one of the main characters loses most of his friendships by attempting suicide at a party, and makes friends with his weird ten-year-old neighbour, was published before the rest of the book as a short story. It kind of shows, mainly because the book doesn't know what to do with the younger kid after that. He becomes a kind of weird sideshow character, turning up from time to time as a kind of secondary (yet interesting enough) drama as the book explores the mystery of his parentage. But it's ultimately folly, he kind of disappears towards the end.
The book switches points of view between two brothers, Alex and James. Alex falls in love and starts dating James's friend Nathen. James works it out, and fortunately isn't a dick about it, but they live in the rural South, so that can't be said for the rest of Alex's friends.
It has a bittersweet ending, and some of the plot points aren't fully resolved, but I think that's indicative of that stage of life. As with some other YA fiction I've read recently, I'm not really the target audience for this one. It can bit hit-and-miss whether I strongly identify with these books or not.
Anyway the book was fine, a gay coming out/coming of age story, but nothing special for me. The printing was a bit crap, to be honest - on many pages the letters were out of line with each other.
The first chapter, where one of the main characters loses most of his friendships by attempting suicide at a party, and makes friends with his weird ten-year-old neighbour, was published before the rest of the book as a short story. It kind of shows, mainly because the book doesn't know what to do with the younger kid after that. He becomes a kind of weird sideshow character, turning up from time to time as a kind of secondary (yet interesting enough) drama as the book explores the mystery of his parentage. But it's ultimately folly, he kind of disappears towards the end.
The book switches points of view between two brothers, Alex and James. Alex falls in love and starts dating James's friend Nathen. James works it out, and fortunately isn't a dick about it, but they live in the rural South, so that can't be said for the rest of Alex's friends.
It has a bittersweet ending, and some of the plot points aren't fully resolved, but I think that's indicative of that stage of life. As with some other YA fiction I've read recently, I'm not really the target audience for this one. It can bit hit-and-miss whether I strongly identify with these books or not.
kaydee1108's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
asiia95's review against another edition
4.0
What can I say about this book? Nothing bad. This book truly describes how the person feels when he is waiting for something important. Also, this strange feeling that you did not belong to this world, that you mean nothing, that you nothing special.
I like this book because this book makes good reading. The story is calm and it felt so good. It’s hard to describe, why this kind of story is good. I was like watching someone else life. Two boys, the last year of school, relationships with girls and boys, a little boy next door.
I marked it 4 stars because I want to know what is going with Nathaniel and Alex? Nathaniel will be in NYU, Alex in Tuscaloosa. I want to know if they will keep their relationship. Really. Alex looks happy, but… The author did not focus on the relationship, because in their lives is something more than just a relationship. But still!
I recommend this book to everyone, who wants to spend a quiet evening with a nice story.
I like this book because this book makes good reading. The story is calm and it felt so good. It’s hard to describe, why this kind of story is good. I was like watching someone else life. Two boys, the last year of school, relationships with girls and boys, a little boy next door.
I marked it 4 stars because I want to know what is going with Nathaniel and Alex? Nathaniel will be in NYU, Alex in Tuscaloosa. I want to know if they will keep their relationship. Really. Alex looks happy, but… The author did not focus on the relationship, because in their lives is something more than just a relationship. But still!
I recommend this book to everyone, who wants to spend a quiet evening with a nice story.
wickedwitchofthewords's review against another edition
4.0
Maybe 3.5 or even 3.75.
It was a good book. The story told was important; about family, friends, love, happiness, sadness, etc. etc.
But, Idk, the characters? I couldn't really feel them. Or feel what they feel. It just wasn't enough for me.
But I did enjoy the plot, the story.
It was a good book. The story told was important; about family, friends, love, happiness, sadness, etc. etc.
But, Idk, the characters? I couldn't really feel them. Or feel what they feel. It just wasn't enough for me.
But I did enjoy the plot, the story.
alienor's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes we read books whose wicked plots and twists, while blatantly aimed to make us feel something, fail their purpose and sometimes, sometimes, we come across a quiet book which lead us to strong and real feelings.
What they always tell us is that kind of books, and that's why, even though I have issues I can't overtake, lowering my rating below 3 stars wouldn't be fair in my opinion. I mean, I ate it up for fuck sake! Indeed contrary to many readers, my main problem wasn't the pacing, because I was never bored. It's a quiet book for sure, not our standard roller-coaster, but I do enjoy reading this kind of books sometimes, especially when they manage to make me feel, as it was the case here.
This being said, despite my utter involvement in Alex and James's lives (well, mostly Alex's, if I'm being honest), I can't help but feel cheated somehow, as the last 25% disappointed me and left me almost empty. Don't you hate it when you're LOVING a book and then you're only waiting for it to end? WORST. FEELING. EVER. Although I adored the first half, I began to slowly change my mind, finishing it in complete exasperation.
▧ This story deals with bullying and the importance of family in a believable and touching way, as we follow James and Alex, two brothers who try to build their relationship again after Alex became suddenly an outcast. Even if James never was my favorite person (mostly he's a know it all jerk for me, especially when it comes to girls - what a slut-shamer he is, I can't even), I understood the need and the interest to get his POV too.
Alex though. Alex broke my heart. Alex made me smile so big. Alex made me cry, too.
▧ What I really appreciated was the way bullying was portrayed, because to me it was realistic - Sometimes being ignored, laughed at, quietly belittled can be more hard to live than many persons acknowledge it, sadly, and Martin Wilson does a great job to picture the thin line between "friendship" (see the quotation marks? Yeah?), teasing and bullying. To be frank, I didn't get what Tyler's deal was (apart from being an asshole, that is), but we don't always understand why people act that way in real life too unfortunately.
"Tyler, in particular, used to bombard him with stinging comments, punctuated always by an empty "Just kidding, Alex."
➸ This sort of passive-aggressive comments is so common - and there they were supposed to be still friends. Damn. The guy pissed me off.
▧ Moreover, what we get here is a portray of realistic characters, with their flaws and their best parts. When I say that they sounded like real teenagers to me, that means that they sometimes think the most stupid things (trust me) - that I had to roll my eyes a few times, actually, but I didn't mind, because for once, I could have imagined them being people actually living.
▧ As for the romance, I must say that Alex and Nathen's gradual and growing relationship was fantastic to follow. They were the cutest, really, and I shipped them from the beginning to the end. Indeed I loved how Nathen tried to break Alex's shell without never being intrusive or judgmental. He was the best, really, even if he irked me with his addiction to the word BUDDY (for real - how many times can he say that?). The ending frustrated me so much though.
▧ I love when YA doesn't try to do YA. That is to say, a dick's a dick, that kind of things (the first shower scene made me laugh way too much for my own good - I don't even know if I was supposed to laugh. Oh, well)
▧ The whole subplot with their young neighbor was messy, especially towards the end where it was completely ridiculous. Let me sum it up : there's Henry, a little boy about 10 years old who moved with his mother at the beginning of the year and who's having a hard time fitting in at school. Nobody really knows why they're here and what his mother does for a living, therefore of course, of course, unfortunately, people can't mind their own business, and you know, speculate about them and wonder why they move around the country so much. Not to mention that the mother is gorgeous so you can infer in what place people's guesses go. Sigh. Add some drama lama in the end and you'll get an annoyed reader (yes, me). Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the friendship building between Henry and the two brothers but the whole drama with his mother got to my nerves, especially in the end because it stole the show and frankly? I didn't care.
▧ The lack of world-building. Yes, you read correctly, I wanted more world-building in my contemporary - or is it, really? After reading it I looked up the date of release and it was released in 2008, not so far away then, right? Now, tell me, did the teenagers had not cell phones and internet in 2008? Huh? Of course they did. Therefore from what I picked in the book (and trust me, there's almost nothing other than the lack of things) I can infer that the story is set in the 90s and therefore I would have LOVED to get some pop culture references or something, anything, really, to help me put the story in perspective because yes, I do think that it's important when we deal with how people react, especially when it comes to tolerance. That's why I'm shelving it as historical romance.
▧ The ending was unsatisfying at best, and mostly frustrating. Look, I'm not usually bothered by open ending but as I said earlier, what maddened me was the fact that we focus on the neighbors' subplot and I didn't fucking care about that. Finally, and it's my own inner brat talking, why the fuck do we get James's POV for the last chapter?
► I wanted Alex's so bad, and I don't give a damn if I'm being a sulking brat at this point.
readerpants's review against another edition
3.0
I'm maybe getting a little burned out on probably-heavily-autobiographical-MFA-theses-set-during-the-author's-undisclosed-teen-years that get turned into YA fiction because of the teen protagonists. There are a lot of them, especially queer ones, and I can't help but feel that these authors don't read YA... in part because they so often privilege their own voice over the characters' voices.
Anyway, there were things I liked about this book -- many of the boys' interactions felt authentic, and there was a lot of time spent developing a strong sense of the setting.
But there were little things that irked me. If it was set during the 90s, why not have a reason to do so, or say so with other cultural markers instead of assuming that setting -- complete with having your own phone line in your room, a lack of cell phones, no internet, etc -- was somehow neutral? I'm pretty sure the author wouldn't define this as historical fiction, but I'm totally tagging it that way. And if you're going to set it during a time that is so radically different than today for queer teens, then it's worth exploring what that means with a little more intentionality, rather than assuming that your readers have the background knowledge to understand it. Because it's little things -- Will and Grace being the only thing on TV, pre-Ellen, post-AIDS, no internet, few ways for isolated kids to have expectations of queer behavior and identity, etc. I think those are all present in the book, but they're part of the background, as if the reader will just understand them. And as a reader in my early 30s, I do. But while the core of human experience is the same, queer life is really, really different for teens now -- even isolated ones -- than it was then.
That's more of a ramble than a review... perhaps I'll be able to pull a more thoughtful and organized review together later.
Anyway, there were things I liked about this book -- many of the boys' interactions felt authentic, and there was a lot of time spent developing a strong sense of the setting.
But there were little things that irked me. If it was set during the 90s, why not have a reason to do so, or say so with other cultural markers instead of assuming that setting -- complete with having your own phone line in your room, a lack of cell phones, no internet, etc -- was somehow neutral? I'm pretty sure the author wouldn't define this as historical fiction, but I'm totally tagging it that way. And if you're going to set it during a time that is so radically different than today for queer teens, then it's worth exploring what that means with a little more intentionality, rather than assuming that your readers have the background knowledge to understand it. Because it's little things -- Will and Grace being the only thing on TV, pre-Ellen, post-AIDS, no internet, few ways for isolated kids to have expectations of queer behavior and identity, etc. I think those are all present in the book, but they're part of the background, as if the reader will just understand them. And as a reader in my early 30s, I do. But while the core of human experience is the same, queer life is really, really different for teens now -- even isolated ones -- than it was then.
That's more of a ramble than a review... perhaps I'll be able to pull a more thoughtful and organized review together later.
schottjm's review against another edition
4.0
Although I'm not the demographic the book was intended for, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It brought back memories of my first real relationship. There were a couple of things that I felt were left hanging, or at least open to interpretation, but overall, a great story. The characters are genuine, not "stock" characters at all. And while I was really nervous at first for Henry, I'm glad nothing majorly bad happened to him. All in all, a great, fast read.
kickpleat's review against another edition
5.0
I picked up this book after midnight last night and read most of it before I fell asleep. You bet it was the first thing I picked up this morning, even though today is Monday and I felt a bit guilty reading in bits during work-not-so-downtimes. Well written, real characters that I wanted to hold onto for a bit longer.