high school – Escape Into Reading

Publisher: Soho Press, Soho Teen

Date of publication: February 6th, 2024

Genre: Romance, Young Adult, LGBT, Contemporary, Queer, Fiction, MM Romance, Gay, Young Adult Contemporary, High School

Purchase Links: Kindle | Audible | B&N | AbeBooks | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this YA pop-punk debut about queer romance and destroying labels, a teen risks everything to write his own story. Perfect for fans of Sonora Reyes and Adib Khorram.

Stonebridge High’s resident bad boy, Wesley “Big Mac” Mackenzie, is failing senior year—thanks to his unchecked anger, rowdy friends, and a tendency to ditch his homework for skateboarding and a secret photography obsession. So when his mom drags him to a production of The Nutcracker, Wes isn’t interested at all . . . until he sees Tristan Monroe. Mr. Nutcracker himself.

Wes knows he shouldn’t like Tristan; after all, he’s a ballet dancer, and Wes is as closeted as they come. But when they start spending time together, Wes can’t seem to get Tristan out of his head. Driven by a new sense of purpose, Wes begins to think that—despite every authority figure telling him otherwise—maybe he can change for the better and graduate on time.

As a falling out with his friends becomes inevitable, Wes realizes that being himself means taking a stand—and blowing up the bad-boy reputation he never wanted in the first place.

From a debut author to watch, Skater Boy delivers a heart-wrenching, validating, and honest story about what it means to be gay in a world where you don’t fit in.

First Line:

I hate people.
Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: Medium and stays medium throughout the book.

POV: 1st person (told from Wes’s POV)

Trigger Warnings: There are scenes of alcoholism (off and on page), alcohol (consumption/off and on page), bullying (graphic and on page), drug use (marijuana only/on page), panic attacks/disorders (on page), violence (on and off page), car accident (on page), domestic abuse (off page for actual assaults but on page with the aftermath—bruises, etc), homophobia (on page), injury/injury detail (on page), child abuse (off page/remembered through memories), and racism (on page). If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book.

Language: Graphic swearing is used in Skater Boy. There is also language used that could be offensive to some people.

Setting: Skater Boy is mainly set in Valentine, Ohio. Towards the end of the book, a chapter is set in New York City. Wes also remembers living in Louisiana.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

Wes “Big Mac” Mackenzie is known for his anger, petty crimes, bullying, and rowdy friends. What people don’t understand about him is that he loves photography and musicals-and he is gay. On top of that, Wes is in danger of failing out of school. The day he receives that information, his mother makes him go to a local production of The Nutcracker with her obnoxious boyfriend and his daughter. He was expecting to be bored out of his mind, and he was until he got a look at who was playing the Nutcracker: Tristan Monroe. Tristian is everything Wes isn’t, including being comfortable in his skin.

As Wes meets and spends more time with Tristian, he starts falling head over heels for him. Wes begins to see a future that isn’t as grim as the school’s counselors and teachers have made it out to be. But when Wes’s friends find out that he is seeing Tristan, it sets off a chain of events that could ruin not only Wes and Tristian’s relationship but also Wes’s future. It is up to Wes to set everyone and everything straight. And if that means coming out, then he’ll do it. Can Wes make things right? Will he get his happily ever after? Or will everything crash and burn?

Characters:

The main character in Skater Boy is Wes. I will be brutally honest about him—Wes was not likable for more than half the book. But he was a sympathetic character. He had gone through a lot as a child, and that shaped him into the angry, violent teenager portrayed in the book. But, as the author peeled back Wes’s layers (surprisingly, there were many), a different person was revealed. This person was artistic, sweet, a little (who am I kidding, a lot) insecure, unsure, and an anxiety-ridden mess. I loved Wes and liked that the more he hung out with Tristian, the more that side of him came out.

I do want to talk about Tristian. While he technically wasn’t a main character (the book was more focused on Wes), he was a considerable part of Wes’s life and the driving force behind Wes doing certain things. I wasn’t a fan of his to begin with (the whole talking about Wes behind his back was crappy), but that didn’t last long. I could see his feelings for Wes growing and understood his impatience with Wes (who was in the closet) to go public with their relationship.

Other secondary characters in this book are fascinating and have backstories that pique my interest. The author was able to incorporate those backstories into Wes’s story without taking Wes’s story over (if that makes sense). The author also used them to show how much Wes grew during this book.

My review:

The main storyline of Skater Boy centers around Wes, his relationship with Tristian, his growth throughout the book, and how his past trauma shaped him into the person he was. It was an emotional read for me. There were times when I wanted to hug Wes and tell him it was OK. But mostly, I was a captivated bystander to Wes’s ups and downs and his character growth.

As I mentioned above, I enjoyed seeing Wes’s character growth. At the beginning of the book, Wes is miserable. He had this facade of a bad boy to maintain. That included doing petty crimes, ditching school, bullying people, and just being a jerk. Add in his massive panic attacks (as someone who suffers from those, I sympathized with him) and the fact that he was gay and hiding it, and I could understand why he was stressed all the time. By the middle of the book, a different Wes emerges after he starts seeing Tristian. I wished this Wes showed up more initially, but I understood why the author let this Wes gradually out.

Wes and Tristian’s relationship is interesting and cute. I say interesting because I didn’t think Tristian liked Wes (only tolerated him). It wasn’t until Wes started shooting Tristian’s headshot and other pictures (for his portfolio) that I think Tristian started to like Wes. However, their relationship is very rocky throughout the book. Wes was very closeted, and it did affect their relationship. The whole bridge scene made me mad. No one deserves to be treated like that, and Tristian had every right to be upset with Wes.

Interwoven with the main storyline are numerous secondary storylines. Each storyline added extra depth and understanding to Wes’s character. Some of them explained why he wanted to keep Tristian a secret. Others explained why he bullied people (and it wasn’t as black and white as the author made it to be). And still, other storylines explained his past.

The end of Skater Boy was interesting and sweet. Once Wes did something, he committed wholeheartedly to it. I was surprised at the music Tristian chose to dance to. Also, his reaction to Wes outside the audition was one of the sweetest ones I have ever read. And the last chapter warmed my heart!!

Many thanks to Soho Press, Soho Teens, NetGalley, and Anthony Nerada for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Skater Boy. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

If you enjoy reading books similar to Skater Boy, then you will enjoy these books:

Suggested Playlist (feel free to add songs or remove songs)

“Sk8er Boi” – Avril Lavigne
“Superman” – Goldfinger
“All the Small Things” – Blink-182
“Basket Case” – Green Day
“Crazy Train” – Ozzy Osbourne
“Welcome to the Jungle” – Guns N’ Roses
“Icky Thump” – The White Stripes
“Misery Business” – Paramore
“The Middle” – Jimmy Eat World
“Teenagers” – My Chemical Romance
“American Idiot” – Green Day
“Anarchy in the U.K.” – Sex Pistols
“Nothing Else Matters” – Metallica

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books

Date of publication: August 22nd, 2023

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Fiction, Queer, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary Romance, High School, Young Adult Romance

Purchase Links: Kindle | B&N | AbeBooks | WorldCat

Goodreads Synopsis:

Juno meets Heartstopper in this poignant and emotional story about found family, what it means to be a parent, and falling in love.

Benjamin Morrison is about to start junior year of high school and while his family is challenging, he is pretty content with his life, with his two best friends, and being a part of the robotics club. Until an experiment at science camp has completely unexpected consequences.

He is going to be a father. Something his mother was not expecting after he came out as gay and she certainly wasn’t expecting that he would want to raise the baby as a single father. But together they come up with a plan to prepare Ben for fatherhood and fight for his rights.

The weight of Ben’s decision presses down on him. He’s always tired, his grades fall, and tension rises between his mom and stepfather. He’s letting down his friends in the robotics club whose future hinges on his expertise. If it wasn’t for his renewed friendship (and maybe more) with a boy from his past, he wouldn’t be able to face the daily ridicule at school or the crumbling relationship with his best friends.

With every new challenge, every new sacrifice he has to make, Ben questions his choice. He’s lived with a void in his heart where a father’s presence should have been, and the fear of putting his own child through that keeps him clinging to his decision. When the baby might be in danger, Ben’s faced with a heart wrenching realization: sometimes being a parent means making the hard choices even if they are the choices you don’t want to make…

First Line:

“Mom, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Unexpecting by Jen Bailey

Having come out to his mother a couple of months previously, Benjamin never imagined that he would be sitting her down and telling her that he got someone pregnant. Even more so, he never thought he would tell her that the girl was his best friend, Maxie, or that he slept with Maxie to ensure he was gay while away at science camp. Having grown up with a revolving door of stepfathers, Benjamin wants to ensure that his child never experiences that, so he decides to raise the baby as a single father. But Benjamin doesn’t expect how hard it is and the sacrifices he will have to make. As complications arise with the pregnancy, school, and friendships, Benjamin realizes that something has to give. Will Benjamin do the right thing?

When I read the blurb for Unexpecting, it got my attention. The more I thought about it, the more interested I got. Since Unexpecting was a Read Now from St. Martin’s Press, I downloaded it. I am glad that I read it because it was a good book. It’s not great because of things I will review, but it’s good.

Unexpecting is a medium to fast-paced book set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The pacing went well with the storyline. The author sped up or slowed down the speed when it needed it. I also did not have to go back and reread chapters/previous paragraphs, which was a big thing for me.

The main storyline in Unexpecting centers around Benjamin, the pregnancy, and its fallout. The storyline was well-written, and the characters were true to life. But, and I stress, there were some things that I wished were in it. As weird as this sounds, I wish it was a dual POV. I would have loved to have read Maxie’s perspective on the pregnancy and Ben’s demands. I also wish that the author was more explicit about Ben being neurodivergent. As the parent of two neurodivergent teenagers, I picked up on Ben’s mannerisms right from the beginning. But other people might not, which could lead to readers needing clarification about his actions and reactions.

The storyline with Ben, Maxie, and the pregnancy brought back some memories. Why? My best friend got pregnant at 16 and had the baby at 17. The ridicule and name-calling hinted at in the book were in full force with her. So, I sympathized with Maxie. I also sympathized with Ben. How the parents reacted were opposite ends of the spectrum (Maxie’s parents were extreme, and Ben’s wasn’t), but again, it was realistic. How this storyline ended up was very real, as well.

Ben was a hot mess for almost the whole book. As I stated above, he was neurodivergent (he shares many similarities with my high-functioning son). That was one of the reasons he was so focused on raising the baby alone and why he didn’t even think to ask how Maxie felt about it until halfway through the book. I did like how I could see the change in his thinking as the pregnancy progressed. I figured out what would happen during a specific scene in Grecos. But it was still heartwarming to read that scene and the ending scene.

I felt awful for Maxie. No one asked what she wanted. Instead, her parents shamed and punished her, and then she was forced to watch Ben battle her parents. I can’t even begin to understand the stress she was under. I do think it factored into her pre-eclampsia. I got teary-eyed at the end when she and Ben had that conversation.

The romance angle of the book was very subtle. While I say it coming from a mile away, I am glad the author didn’t go overboard. Instead, she made Gio more of a support person for Ben than a would-be boyfriend. I enjoyed that and watching their relationship morph into something more.

I want to complain about Ben’s mother and Maxie’s parents briefly. I firmly believe that Ben’s mother was cheating on her husband with her ex-husband, but she stopped when confronted. I also find it problematic that she didn’t know Ben’s emotional issues because of having no father. As a guidance counselor, she is trained for that. As for Maxie’s parents, they had every right to be angry with Ben. But I wouldn’t say I liked how they treated Maxie. All I could think of when reading how they treated her was the scene in GoT where Ceresi walked through the streets of Kings Landing with the nun in front of her yelling, “Shame, Shame.” It is a little extreme, but still. Also, I didn’t particularly appreciate how they did their best to keep Ben out of the loop. From her father having words with a sixteen-year-old (real man there) to her mother just being nasty to him, it was sad.

The end of Unexpecting was bittersweet. I liked that Ben did the right thing but wondered what could have happened.

I would recommend Unexpecting to anyone over 16. There are no sexual situations, mild violence, or language. There is bigotry and implied slut shaming at various points in the book.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, NetGalley, and Jen Bailey for allowing me to read and review Unexpecting. All opinions stated in this book are mine.

If you enjoy reading books similar to Unexpecting, then you will enjoy reading these:

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