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hemmel_mol's review against another edition
3.0
I like Kyle's pov very much. In the end the focus was too much on bigotry and the story became preachy
a_reader_obsessed's review
4.0
This was probably one of the tougher m/m books I've read to date. Sure we all read m/m mostly for the romance and the smex and though some do address the difficult issues of coming out, this one was entirely focused on it and the ramifications - the serious, complicated, difficult ramifications that many LGBT teens have and probably will face.
Though this centers on two high school seniors, where at their age everything is about image, where situations may be interpreted over dramatically, it in no way negates problems such as bullying, discrimination, bigotry and of course blinding hatred. There is no sugarcoating here and maybe because it's set in small town America, there is a very plausible fear to what Kyle and Brad endure - and it's not pretty.
I loved the evolution of these two. Kyle goes from an invisible nobody, a loner by choice, to a man of conviction and strength. He may have been literally and figuratively beaten down in life but he's not going to be a punching bag any more. He's also a realist. He has no delusions that any proclamations of his sexuality will result in a welcome parade or easy acceptance. Kyle knows it's going to be ugly but he's no longer content to be passive and he's ready to defend himself and Brad with a fierceness that he didn't even know he had. It was freakin brilliant and awesome.
Not to say that Brad's life is puppies and rainbows. He too knows the stark reality of popularity and the importance of presenting a certain persona, a persona that he has been perfecting for years and unfortunately, trampled on many as he worked his way to the top. However one day Kyle catches his eye and he can't let him go and thus starts in motion a series of events that is scary and heartbreaking and liberating. Brad finds inner strength and conviction as his carefully constructed life dissolves around him. He realizes he no longer wants to hide his true self nor give up Kyle, and he tries to rectify his past actions and he does this beautifully.
So emotions definitely run high here. There's crushing disappointment, hopeful happiness, and paralyzing/catalyzing fear and anger. This is about realizing that not living truthfully is not living at all and having the courage to take that first step towards the first day of the rest of your life - a difficult life for sure, but a better life absolutely.
Though this centers on two high school seniors, where at their age everything is about image, where situations may be interpreted over dramatically, it in no way negates problems such as bullying, discrimination, bigotry and of course blinding hatred. There is no sugarcoating here and maybe because it's set in small town America, there is a very plausible fear to what Kyle and Brad endure - and it's not pretty.
I loved the evolution of these two. Kyle goes from an invisible nobody, a loner by choice, to a man of conviction and strength. He may have been literally and figuratively beaten down in life but he's not going to be a punching bag any more. He's also a realist. He has no delusions that any proclamations of his sexuality will result in a welcome parade or easy acceptance. Kyle knows it's going to be ugly but he's no longer content to be passive and he's ready to defend himself and Brad with a fierceness that he didn't even know he had. It was freakin brilliant and awesome.
Not to say that Brad's life is puppies and rainbows. He too knows the stark reality of popularity and the importance of presenting a certain persona, a persona that he has been perfecting for years and unfortunately, trampled on many as he worked his way to the top. However one day Kyle catches his eye and he can't let him go and thus starts in motion a series of events that is scary and heartbreaking and liberating. Brad finds inner strength and conviction as his carefully constructed life dissolves around him. He realizes he no longer wants to hide his true self nor give up Kyle, and he tries to rectify his past actions and he does this beautifully.
So emotions definitely run high here. There's crushing disappointment, hopeful happiness, and paralyzing/catalyzing fear and anger. This is about realizing that not living truthfully is not living at all and having the courage to take that first step towards the first day of the rest of your life - a difficult life for sure, but a better life absolutely.
miloblue's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
mikibooks's review
4.0
Original, repleta de sensaciones y lugares que tocan de cerca, inteligente y muy bien escrita. Goode ratifica que no hace falta recurrir solo a elementos poco convencionales, insólitos, o inusuales para construir una historia hermosa, real pero no trillada; no literal sino absolutamente literaria. No tengo tiempo para explayarme mucho más, la realidad me corre muy de cerca, pero no quería dejar de remarcarlo. Bravo.
inkstndfngrs's review against another edition
2.0
I finished this book on Friday night, and had to really sit with it over the weekend so I didn't just come into it and rip it apart. Because, and I want to emphasize this: This book wasn't awful. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. Also, I'm a horrible spoiler, so...you've been warned.
First let me start with some of the comments I made while reading. Early on, Kyle mentions "photographic memories are great" --which is literally never mentioned ever again. And also, what he has just done is not "photographic". If anything, it was Eidetic Memory. Or, you know...he's just really good at memorizing things.
I also noted at the same time, that this book seems to be written by an Elder Queer who is trying to juxtapose their own experiences onto today's youth. And, after poking around a little bit and reading the About the Author. I think I'm spot on in that regard. There was too much emphasis on pop culture attempting to make the timing seem relevant. Then there were things like Kyle not having a cellphone. Look. Today, every damn kid has a cell phone. Even if your parents suck. It's probably a cheap pre-pay that he would end up changing the phone number of every couple of months, but he'd have a phone. It's a safety thing, for most of them. It's highly unlikely they'd have a landline in this day and age. Even my parents no longer have a landline, and the reception at our house stinks.
The timeline in this book also makes me inexplicably annoyed. It literally takes place over the course of two weeks or so. These boys are sixteen years old. This insta-attraction, I'm-so-in-love-with-you thing feels gross and toxic. Also, these vague sex scenes that were included made me, as a 32 year old non-binary person, feel a bit gross. I do not approve of the lack of condom use. Never have, never will, regardless of the situation.
The author also doesn't seem to understand poverty. There is a line about wearing Walmart Jeans and JC Penney t-shirt. Dude. Have you been in a Penney's? It was one of my grandmother's favorite stores when I was a kid. We maybe bought 1 outfit there for back to school (family of four kids), and that was the early 2000's. A Walmart t-shirt is $7.50 (average, sometimes $5.88 if they're on mark down). Penney's...I wouldn't expect to spend less than $15, but more likely $25-30. For a t-shirt.
It would have made more sense to just leave off the store names and say they were thrift or hand-me-downs from someone his Mom worked with, etc. A Lost and Found box somewhere.
In Part Two, Kyle says it's wrong it skip school. AFTER HE HAS LITERALLY CUT CLASSES AFTER LUNCH TWICE IN THE PAST WEEK.
Later, when Brad gets beat up, the description is incredibly over the top. "Pool of blood" and "more blood outside my body than inside". If I hadn't been reading on my phone, I would have thrown the book across the room. Talk about over dramatic.
...Anyway, there was just a lot here that over all was inconsistent. I didn't care for Kyle's Personified Feelings. It made him come off as schizophrenic, which is a whole other can of worms. In the last book/part, his chapters were frequently headed with his take on fairy tales or John Hughes movies (which was inconsistent as well) and frankly: I was bored after the first hot take. I stopped reading them.
I think this little trilogy as a whole could have been better told as the dueling storytellers the whole time, instead of giving Kyle and Brad each their own "book", then collaborating on the third. For one thing, Kyle's character development was basically lost in Book/Part 2. He had zero personality from Brad's perspective. Like, the author had forgotten what kind of person he was.
I also had some beef with some formatting issues. Not having this broken into chapters came of as amateur at best. It was really difficult to judge how much I had left in book because of it. I had to keep closing the book and checking my progress. I know, that's a "me" problem. It definitely could have used a round of stronger beta readers, or a developmental editor. Over all, it was just lacking. I don't think I'll be picking up any other books by this author.
First let me start with some of the comments I made while reading. Early on, Kyle mentions "photographic memories are great" --which is literally never mentioned ever again. And also, what he has just done is not "photographic". If anything, it was Eidetic Memory. Or, you know...he's just really good at memorizing things.
I also noted at the same time, that this book seems to be written by an Elder Queer who is trying to juxtapose their own experiences onto today's youth. And, after poking around a little bit and reading the About the Author. I think I'm spot on in that regard. There was too much emphasis on pop culture attempting to make the timing seem relevant. Then there were things like Kyle not having a cellphone. Look. Today, every damn kid has a cell phone. Even if your parents suck. It's probably a cheap pre-pay that he would end up changing the phone number of every couple of months, but he'd have a phone. It's a safety thing, for most of them. It's highly unlikely they'd have a landline in this day and age. Even my parents no longer have a landline, and the reception at our house stinks.
The timeline in this book also makes me inexplicably annoyed. It literally takes place over the course of two weeks or so. These boys are sixteen years old. This insta-attraction, I'm-so-in-love-with-you thing feels gross and toxic. Also, these vague sex scenes that were included made me, as a 32 year old non-binary person, feel a bit gross. I do not approve of the lack of condom use. Never have, never will, regardless of the situation.
The author also doesn't seem to understand poverty. There is a line about wearing Walmart Jeans and JC Penney t-shirt. Dude. Have you been in a Penney's? It was one of my grandmother's favorite stores when I was a kid. We maybe bought 1 outfit there for back to school (family of four kids), and that was the early 2000's. A Walmart t-shirt is $7.50 (average, sometimes $5.88 if they're on mark down). Penney's...I wouldn't expect to spend less than $15, but more likely $25-30. For a t-shirt.
It would have made more sense to just leave off the store names and say they were thrift or hand-me-downs from someone his Mom worked with, etc. A Lost and Found box somewhere.
In Part Two, Kyle says it's wrong it skip school. AFTER HE HAS LITERALLY CUT CLASSES AFTER LUNCH TWICE IN THE PAST WEEK.
Later, when Brad gets beat up, the description is incredibly over the top. "Pool of blood" and "more blood outside my body than inside". If I hadn't been reading on my phone, I would have thrown the book across the room. Talk about over dramatic.
...Anyway, there was just a lot here that over all was inconsistent. I didn't care for Kyle's Personified Feelings. It made him come off as schizophrenic, which is a whole other can of worms. In the last book/part, his chapters were frequently headed with his take on fairy tales or John Hughes movies (which was inconsistent as well) and frankly: I was bored after the first hot take. I stopped reading them.
I think this little trilogy as a whole could have been better told as the dueling storytellers the whole time, instead of giving Kyle and Brad each their own "book", then collaborating on the third. For one thing, Kyle's character development was basically lost in Book/Part 2. He had zero personality from Brad's perspective. Like, the author had forgotten what kind of person he was.
I also had some beef with some formatting issues. Not having this broken into chapters came of as amateur at best. It was really difficult to judge how much I had left in book because of it. I had to keep closing the book and checking my progress. I know, that's a "me" problem. It definitely could have used a round of stronger beta readers, or a developmental editor. Over all, it was just lacking. I don't think I'll be picking up any other books by this author.
ryanpfw's review against another edition
4.0
I’m catching up on a number of reviews from the last couple of weeks. This one was solid. The series was written years ago, and three short novels were combined into this revised edition. I read the first third of this last year and did a reread here from the revised edition. There were things that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me in the first reading that were clarified in the final two thirds, so I appreciated that. Some characterization was a little fuzzy. Kyle’s mom is described as borderline abusive and sort of snaps out of that fairly easily. All in all, the awful characters made me see red, which is the way it should work, and there was enough “you’re one of us” moments to keep things hopeful. I’ll be reading more.
_veelox's review
5.0
Ok first of all, I’m really bad at doing reviews. Usually I just read the book and move on to the next one. If I like the book it usually gets 5 starts, if I didn’t it gets 3 stars because if I finished it deserve 3 stars, and if I don’t finish a books it gets 1 star. Also I’m not one to over analyze the story, background, characters, etc. I think I’ll review this with my thoughts and some quotes that I really enjoyed during this book.
The first thing that I loved about this book was the main character, Kyle. He's such a believable character. There’s one thing that confused me was the switch of perspective between parts. After the first one I was in the state of mind of Kyle, and we I switched to part two I had a hard time thinking it was not Kyle, but Brad.
Even though I don't come from the same background as Kyle or Brad, I still felt like I could relate to them. The situations they were living were believable, because some of them happened to me, not exactly alike but similar. The author really understood the hard times for a gay kid in high school and wrote them down perfectly.
When I read a book, I usually live it. If the character is sad, I’m sad. If he's angry, I’m angry. I was living Kyle and Brad's life for a few days.
"I don't remember the moment I knew I was broken. I was seventeen and on the … I knew I liked guys but was still under the delusion that an attraction to guys didn't make you gay…"
THIS!. This phrase/part summed up my entire high school life. I never knew one phrase could mean so much. John was able to grasp my entire hell of emotions from that time in my life in one phrase.
Then he founds Brad, or rather Brad found him. The one person that he never thought could be like him. Brad is the one that made the first contact. Kyle would have never attempt this.
The first part goes on with the secret of brad and Kyle. Then at the end Kyle braves up and confront the school bully who was bullying him calling him gay slurs. Kyle stands up to him and tells him that he is indeed gay. The book ends with Brad standing up for Kyle, revealing his secret as well.
For part two we switch to Brad's point of view. We learn more about his family and his struggles. He thinks he made a mistake saying that he was gay. He tries to be true to himself and be with Kyle, but there's an uncertainty. Which breaks them apart. Fighting with Kyle really confuses him more, and he goes to the theater to think things through. He later meets with the guy who sells sport equipment and clothes. He knew him through his dad (If I remember correctly) and learns that he is gay too, and they talk about it. This give courage to Brand and he later admits to his parent his homosexuality and patches things up with Kyle.
Part three, Kyle and Brad faces their schoolmate. I liked that Kyle wasn't shy about who he was. Where I come from, the schools are really more open mind about homosexuality, so I was really frustrate about the principal and his ways, the bullies, and the coach kicking Brad off the team.
One thing I didn't suspect was the support of Brad's father. I knew his mom would be more accepting, but being that his father had already physically abused him in the past, this was a complete turn around. In the end, Kyle and Brad are together for good. Their parents rallied against the school board with great legal arguments about why what they were doing to their kids was wrong and that they could do something about it. But what topped it off was brad beautiful speech.
I remembered the first part in more detail because I had highlighted a lot of things, part 2 and 3, I was too in to it, and so I forgot to highlight my favorites parts. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it just the same. All three parts were fantastic and I recommended these books to my friends.
I can’t wait to re-read it and do more annotation this time around. I might wait to buy the hardcopy to that I can write in the margins (I NEVER write in my books, so that means that I really liked this one). This way I twill be a permanent reminding of my thought while reading it.
The first thing that I loved about this book was the main character, Kyle. He's such a believable character. There’s one thing that confused me was the switch of perspective between parts. After the first one I was in the state of mind of Kyle, and we I switched to part two I had a hard time thinking it was not Kyle, but Brad.
Even though I don't come from the same background as Kyle or Brad, I still felt like I could relate to them. The situations they were living were believable, because some of them happened to me, not exactly alike but similar. The author really understood the hard times for a gay kid in high school and wrote them down perfectly.
When I read a book, I usually live it. If the character is sad, I’m sad. If he's angry, I’m angry. I was living Kyle and Brad's life for a few days.
Spoiler
From the start, the first lines, I knew I would love this story:"I don't remember the moment I knew I was broken. I was seventeen and on the … I knew I liked guys but was still under the delusion that an attraction to guys didn't make you gay…"
THIS!. This phrase/part summed up my entire high school life. I never knew one phrase could mean so much. John was able to grasp my entire hell of emotions from that time in my life in one phrase.
Then he founds Brad, or rather Brad found him. The one person that he never thought could be like him. Brad is the one that made the first contact. Kyle would have never attempt this.
The first part goes on with the secret of brad and Kyle. Then at the end Kyle braves up and confront the school bully who was bullying him calling him gay slurs. Kyle stands up to him and tells him that he is indeed gay. The book ends with Brad standing up for Kyle, revealing his secret as well.
For part two we switch to Brad's point of view. We learn more about his family and his struggles. He thinks he made a mistake saying that he was gay. He tries to be true to himself and be with Kyle, but there's an uncertainty. Which breaks them apart. Fighting with Kyle really confuses him more, and he goes to the theater to think things through. He later meets with the guy who sells sport equipment and clothes. He knew him through his dad (If I remember correctly) and learns that he is gay too, and they talk about it. This give courage to Brand and he later admits to his parent his homosexuality and patches things up with Kyle.
Part three, Kyle and Brad faces their schoolmate. I liked that Kyle wasn't shy about who he was. Where I come from, the schools are really more open mind about homosexuality, so I was really frustrate about the principal and his ways, the bullies, and the coach kicking Brad off the team.
One thing I didn't suspect was the support of Brad's father. I knew his mom would be more accepting, but being that his father had already physically abused him in the past, this was a complete turn around. In the end, Kyle and Brad are together for good. Their parents rallied against the school board with great legal arguments about why what they were doing to their kids was wrong and that they could do something about it. But what topped it off was brad beautiful speech.
I remembered the first part in more detail because I had highlighted a lot of things, part 2 and 3, I was too in to it, and so I forgot to highlight my favorites parts. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it just the same. All three parts were fantastic and I recommended these books to my friends.
I can’t wait to re-read it and do more annotation this time around. I might wait to buy the hardcopy to that I can write in the margins (I NEVER write in my books, so that means that I really liked this one). This way I twill be a permanent reminding of my thought while reading it.
niegle's review against another edition
3.0
Good book. Bad proof reading
The story is well thought out and the characters are likable. The proofreading and editing are lacking. It is shame no one takes pride in their work anymore. Still worth reading.
The story is well thought out and the characters are likable. The proofreading and editing are lacking. It is shame no one takes pride in their work anymore. Still worth reading.
nicola949's review against another edition
5.0
I 'read' this via audio book and LOVED it. See the review of the first book Maybe With A Chance Of Certainty where I focus a little more on the narration. I cannot speak more highly of Michael Stellman. He did a wonderful job of narrating Tales from Foster High and I believe his voice is perfectly suited to the telling of a YA story.
skye16's review against another edition
3.0
I have very fond memories of this book. I gotta say with its derogatory, ableist, and sexist language it doesn't quite hold up. But Florida's discriminatory anti-gay laws make the main message of the book quite relevant once again.