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ericdakota's review
I am destroyed, and that's a good thing?
I have read this book and I am destroyed. There is no way this book should have worked. Its a mess in so many ways and yet it works on every level.
The majority of this story is told from Kyle's point of view, occasionally letting us visit the PoV of the other characters, without warning, and confusingly. Yet... It works.
I have the urge to sit in a dark room and cry for Jack and Kyle, and Trent and Trey, and Dana, and for parents that destroy their children's lives over their own stupid expectations.
Kyle, a boy with everything and yet empty and lonely. Kyle, A man with nothing, and devoid of meaning and love. Kyle, the picture of so !any of us gay men who find ourselves destroyed by family, expectations, and society.
Can I help but look at Kyle and wonder if this is how so many of us end up?
Kyle and Jack are a masters study in why we should embrace the moment as if it might be our last. It just might be.
Kyle and Jack, they do everything right and yet nothing turns out right.
Are we to envy Kyle and his ability to love so deeply, or do we pity him his obsession that leads to a wasteland of a life?
Kyle is by no means perfect. He falls in love, and loves Jack well, but in the doing destroys all his other relationships - friends and parents alike.
This book deserves a place on my bookshelf among other great books, as a study in love and loss, and yet great and gripping writing.
DO NOT MISS READING THIS GAY CLASSIC.
I have read this book and I am destroyed. There is no way this book should have worked. Its a mess in so many ways and yet it works on every level.
The majority of this story is told from Kyle's point of view, occasionally letting us visit the PoV of the other characters, without warning, and confusingly. Yet... It works.
I have the urge to sit in a dark room and cry for Jack and Kyle, and Trent and Trey, and Dana, and for parents that destroy their children's lives over their own stupid expectations.
Kyle, a boy with everything and yet empty and lonely. Kyle, A man with nothing, and devoid of meaning and love. Kyle, the picture of so !any of us gay men who find ourselves destroyed by family, expectations, and society.
Can I help but look at Kyle and wonder if this is how so many of us end up?
Kyle and Jack are a masters study in why we should embrace the moment as if it might be our last. It just might be.
Kyle and Jack, they do everything right and yet nothing turns out right.
Are we to envy Kyle and his ability to love so deeply, or do we pity him his obsession that leads to a wasteland of a life?
Kyle is by no means perfect. He falls in love, and loves Jack well, but in the doing destroys all his other relationships - friends and parents alike.
This book deserves a place on my bookshelf among other great books, as a study in love and loss, and yet great and gripping writing.
DO NOT MISS READING THIS GAY CLASSIC.
heatheradoresbooks's review
3.0
3⭐
Genre ~ LGBT romance ~MM
Publication date ~ July 8, 2019
Page Count ~ 453
POV ~ multiple 3rd
Featuring ~ YA, teenagers, coming of age, references to suicide, abortion, depression, homophobia, minimal steamage
Kyle summers with his 4 best friends ~ Trent, Carly, Claudia and Dana.
He sees Jack when they're all hanging out one day and is instantly obsessed with seeing and getting to know him. He eventually finds the courage to talk to him and he brings him into his friendship circle. There is just something about Jack that makes him want to spend every waking moment together. His friend group has been tight knit for years, though, and they don't let outsiders in easily, which leads to Kyle pulling away from them. Trent is used to them be being inseparable, so when his bff isn't around as much as he used to be he makes some bad choices that will drive a deeper wedge between them. I did feel bad for Trent because I could feel his disappointment in losing his friend and, also, his sadness that Kyle didn't feel like he could tell anyone he was gay.
Other characters of note are Kyle parents, Jack's parents and another boy, Trey.
It's broken up into 6 parts ~ May, June, July, August, September & Winter. Each section does not have numbered chapters in the general sense, but each 'chapter' is on the shorter side, which I appreciate, however it still felt a bit long. It was a bit repetitive as they really did the same things over and over again, such as going to the lagoon, hanging on the beach, playing volleyball, drinking and playing truth or dare.
Kyle has been depressed for years due to his brother's suicide. Jack slowly brings light back into his life until September comes and homophobia drives Jack out of town and the light dims again. Kyle is then on another obsessive mission trying to find him. I liked that Trent accompanied him on this adventure, and quite an adventure it was.
Overall, I liked it well enough and I felt the author did a nice job of depicting how first love is and how you feel you can't live without them, but in turn it was a little too obsessive for me. And I'm not just talking about Kyle/Jack as there's another bout of jealously going on with another character. I'm happy to say I was not expecting that ending, but it left me feeling rather sad.
*Thanks to the author for sending me a copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
Connect with me ➡ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter
Genre ~ LGBT romance ~MM
Publication date ~ July 8, 2019
Page Count ~ 453
POV ~ multiple 3rd
Featuring ~ YA, teenagers, coming of age, references to suicide, abortion, depression, homophobia, minimal steamage
Kyle summers with his 4 best friends ~ Trent, Carly, Claudia and Dana.
He sees Jack when they're all hanging out one day and is instantly obsessed with seeing and getting to know him. He eventually finds the courage to talk to him and he brings him into his friendship circle. There is just something about Jack that makes him want to spend every waking moment together. His friend group has been tight knit for years, though, and they don't let outsiders in easily, which leads to Kyle pulling away from them. Trent is used to them be being inseparable, so when his bff isn't around as much as he used to be he makes some bad choices that will drive a deeper wedge between them. I did feel bad for Trent because I could feel his disappointment in losing his friend and, also, his sadness that Kyle didn't feel like he could tell anyone he was gay.
Other characters of note are Kyle parents, Jack's parents and another boy, Trey.
It's broken up into 6 parts ~ May, June, July, August, September & Winter. Each section does not have numbered chapters in the general sense, but each 'chapter' is on the shorter side, which I appreciate, however it still felt a bit long. It was a bit repetitive as they really did the same things over and over again, such as going to the lagoon, hanging on the beach, playing volleyball, drinking and playing truth or dare.
Kyle has been depressed for years due to his brother's suicide. Jack slowly brings light back into his life until September comes and homophobia drives Jack out of town and the light dims again. Kyle is then on another obsessive mission trying to find him. I liked that Trent accompanied him on this adventure, and quite an adventure it was.
Overall, I liked it well enough and I felt the author did a nice job of depicting how first love is and how you feel you can't live without them, but in turn it was a little too obsessive for me. And I'm not just talking about Kyle/Jack as there's another bout of jealously going on with another character. I'm happy to say I was not expecting that ending, but it left me feeling rather sad.
*Thanks to the author for sending me a copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
Connect with me ➡ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter
ruth_miranda's review
5.0
What a beautiful book. This is the one word that I associate the most with this story - beautiful.
What could have been an annoying tale of beautiful people leading beautiful lives and spending their summers in beautiful backdrops - and I honestly expected that, when I first started reading past that alluring prologue - turned out to be what I'm sure will remain one of my favourite, most touching reads of this year. I loved the story with all its swoops and swirls and that constant sense of impending doom, which was done masterfully, right from that prologue, loved the writing both down-to-earth and poetic, loved the mood the author's prose weaves into the tale, loved the characters - mostly because I did not love most of them at all, and that was the best part of it. They all felt real, vivid, THERE. As if I could have come across them any given time, at any given summer place. I loved how bitchy and downright poisonous Claudia always sounded, because she was the smartest one who could see right through Kyle, I loved Dana for her quietness and barely there presence - and how she turned out to be the one who remains steadfast through all that happens - I loved Carly's aloofness and lack of depth, I loved Trent's spoiled personality and his tantrums and the way he acted so immature and childish but at the same time, capable of a loyalty that ran deep in his veins, I loved Trey's meanness and his bitterness and his obsession, I loved Jack's innocence and fears and how he becomes more and more real throughout the narrative, until we're confronted with Jack as he is and not as Kyle sees him, and I loved Kyle.
I loved his poignancy and his passion, his unflinching belief in a love that's supposed to be a summer fling and not meant to last, the pain of his past, the weight he carries and that others chose to place on him, the way he loses himself, the desperate acts, the search, the never giving up, and how his heart never changes, in the end.
I also loved that my own country features in the book at some point and the author wrote Porto instead of Oporto as most English speaking people do. Would have prefered to have seen a bit more attention put into the use of the Portuguese language when the priests speaks it to the boys - we don't say 'Si', that's Spanish, it's 'Sim' for us, and it's not 'O avós' because 'O' is a singular pronoun, and 'avós' is plural - it's said 'Os avós'. This is the only remark I have to make, and it's such a tiny one it made no difference at all in my love for this tale
I am really glad I came across this novel, for it was one of my best reads so far, and I will never forget it. These characters and their story will stay with me forever.
Thank you to Book Sirens and the author for providing me with an ARC.
What could have been an annoying tale of beautiful people leading beautiful lives and spending their summers in beautiful backdrops - and I honestly expected that, when I first started reading past that alluring prologue - turned out to be what I'm sure will remain one of my favourite, most touching reads of this year. I loved the story with all its swoops and swirls and that constant sense of impending doom, which was done masterfully, right from that prologue, loved the writing both down-to-earth and poetic, loved the mood the author's prose weaves into the tale, loved the characters - mostly because I did not love most of them at all, and that was the best part of it. They all felt real, vivid, THERE. As if I could have come across them any given time, at any given summer place. I loved how bitchy and downright poisonous Claudia always sounded, because she was the smartest one who could see right through Kyle, I loved Dana for her quietness and barely there presence - and how she turned out to be the one who remains steadfast through all that happens - I loved Carly's aloofness and lack of depth, I loved Trent's spoiled personality and his tantrums and the way he acted so immature and childish but at the same time, capable of a loyalty that ran deep in his veins, I loved Trey's meanness and his bitterness and his obsession, I loved Jack's innocence and fears and how he becomes more and more real throughout the narrative, until we're confronted with Jack as he is and not as Kyle sees him, and I loved Kyle.
I loved his poignancy and his passion, his unflinching belief in a love that's supposed to be a summer fling and not meant to last, the pain of his past, the weight he carries and that others chose to place on him, the way he loses himself, the desperate acts, the search, the never giving up, and how his heart never changes, in the end.
I also loved that my own country features in the book at some point and the author wrote Porto instead of Oporto as most English speaking people do. Would have prefered to have seen a bit more attention put into the use of the Portuguese language when the priests speaks it to the boys - we don't say 'Si', that's Spanish, it's 'Sim' for us, and it's not 'O avós' because 'O' is a singular pronoun, and 'avós' is plural - it's said 'Os avós'. This is the only remark I have to make, and it's such a tiny one it made no difference at all in my love for this tale
I am really glad I came across this novel, for it was one of my best reads so far, and I will never forget it. These characters and their story will stay with me forever.
Thank you to Book Sirens and the author for providing me with an ARC.
oceanwriter's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Not a happy-go-lucky love story for sure, and honestly, I think I prefer it this way. With a beautiful summer backdrop, this coming-of-age story doesn't shy away from the gritty parts of life.
During a milestone summer vacation, Kyle meets Jack. As he brings him into his group of friends on the island, the boys (and the rest of the group) face a number of trials — many of which will have a lifelong impact on their lives. Though a work of historical fiction, time doesn't seem to make much of a difference here as the heart of the story is its characters and their lives.
I enjoyed the writing style here. It was full of heart and I found myself connecting to the characters even though they weren't personally relatable to me (nor were all of them always likable). The plot got a bit busy toward the middle, but it smoothed out again by the end. As I said in the beginning, this isn't a fluffy romance. It has a realistic feel that is, for me, a refreshing break from too-good-to-be-true romances.
A huge thanks to the author for sending me a free digital copy of the book to read and review!
During a milestone summer vacation, Kyle meets Jack. As he brings him into his group of friends on the island, the boys (and the rest of the group) face a number of trials — many of which will have a lifelong impact on their lives. Though a work of historical fiction, time doesn't seem to make much of a difference here as the heart of the story is its characters and their lives.
I enjoyed the writing style here. It was full of heart and I found myself connecting to the characters even though they weren't personally relatable to me (nor were all of them always likable). The plot got a bit busy toward the middle, but it smoothed out again by the end. As I said in the beginning, this isn't a fluffy romance. It has a realistic feel that is, for me, a refreshing break from too-good-to-be-true romances.
A huge thanks to the author for sending me a free digital copy of the book to read and review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Sexual content
Moderate: Abortion
More...