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christajls's review against another edition
4.0
A straightforward story of figuring out who you are, and the courage to accept that revelation.
This was a wonderful, simple novel. No bells and whistles, no gimicks. Just a solid story. I really enjoyed Dan's character. He seemed like someone I get to know, someone I would be friends with this and this immediately put me at ease. Tom Ryan does an excellent job at creating realistic characters, and everyone seemed to remind me of someone I knew growing up.
I also loved the small town Canadian setting. That was also something I felt a deep connection with, and I understood the dynamics of Dan's situation. I think a lot of teens coming to terms with their sexual identity, will find a lot of themselves in Dan and his situation.
I felt like Tome was being an incredibly honest with this book. And I can confidently and whole heartedly recommend it to teens, parents, libraries, schools...everybody!
This was a wonderful, simple novel. No bells and whistles, no gimicks. Just a solid story. I really enjoyed Dan's character. He seemed like someone I get to know, someone I would be friends with this and this immediately put me at ease. Tom Ryan does an excellent job at creating realistic characters, and everyone seemed to remind me of someone I knew growing up.
I also loved the small town Canadian setting. That was also something I felt a deep connection with, and I understood the dynamics of Dan's situation. I think a lot of teens coming to terms with their sexual identity, will find a lot of themselves in Dan and his situation.
I felt like Tome was being an incredibly honest with this book. And I can confidently and whole heartedly recommend it to teens, parents, libraries, schools...everybody!
hexijosh's review against another edition
2.0
Ever the vigilant YA GLBT fiction enthusiast (so many letters), I try to keep my eyes and ears open for anything new in the category. It's often a hard quest, requiring star navigation and Google Maps routes. And then sometimes they just throw themselves at me. I found out about Way To Go after the author, Tom Ryan, followed me on twitter. As soon as I saw "gay" and "young adult" in the same sentence, I was in. So did it measure up? Let's see.
Way to Go is set in early/mid-90s small town Canada (are there any gay teen books out there that actually take place in a BIG city or some shit? No? hm...) and centers around Danny, the hero of the piece. Danny is, you guessed it, coping with confusing feelings of homosexuality and big-fish-little-pond syndrome. Everyone suspects it, but he's in denial. And when the mysteriously cool New York City girl shows up in town and happens to be a co-worker at his new summer job, he's out to prove he's totally into the v-jay.
Alright, now Way to Go isn't going to take up too much of your time. This is a weekend afternoon read at the most. I knocked it out in 2 evenings, thanks to being damned tired from this new job 'o mine. Anyways, the pacing is quick and coupled with the low page count, this one will be a breeze for most readers. Unfortunately, that's one of the factors hurting this book.
The problem I had is that I feel like we didn't accomplish much on this short ride. I never felt as though there was any clear goal in sight, other than for Danny to survive the summer before his final year of high school. I'm all for books where being gay isn't the major issue at hand, but this is a rare moment where I felt it should have been more of the book's focus. Danny may have talked plenty about fearing his gayness, but I never felt it.
Then there's the whole shebang about Danny realizing he loves cooking and wants to make a career out of it. It played a little like this: "Hey, you suck at washing dishes, why don't you peel potatoes? Oh, look at that, it's been a month and you're a whiz at whipping up a steak dinner. You should go to culinary school!" I take issue with that, but whatever. I guess it's possible for a 17 year old to, after 2 months working in a kitchen, be deemed good enough to apply to an elite culinary school. Stranger things have happened (like [a:Michael Griffo|3014690|Michael Griffo|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1315171537p2/3014690.jpg] getting a f%ing book deal).
And the dialogue; maybe Canadians say mean things to each other and it's all completely benign. I just find it hard to imagine someone telling me "It's none of your business," with a friendly smile on their face. Witnessing such a thing would fill me with fear of an immanent slap or make me think the person is completely unhinged. There were more than a few of these moments where the characters' words didn't seem to mesh with their actions.
One thing I was happy to NOT find here was a lot of melodrama. While the dialogue wasn't great, it was at least honest and down-to-earth. There is one notable exception to this when, after learning his son wants to be a chef, Danny's dad throws a hissy over the thought of spending money on cooking school.
I also didn't care for the final chapter. It was far too saccharine. Like a bag of Skittles tied up with a little bow made of fondant. It was way too easy and all the conflicts (if there really were any to begin with) wrapped themselves up neatly. And that's the real issue I have with the book: I don't feel like anyone grew or evolved as a character. Danny barely manages to only come out a step or two ahead from where we first met him and everyone else is just kinda of there in the background, doing their thing.
Honestly, the book isn't bad. I've read bad books (still lookin' at you, Griffo. You useless mother#*$& son of a $*@# who eats %&^@ for breakfast. GAH, IHATEYOUSOMUCH!) and this isn't what I would consider one. But it's definitely not going on my must-read list either. It's a solid 2.5 to 3 that I would put alongside Brent Hartinger's Geography Club and David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy, two other books that left me equally underwhelmed.
It's definitely a debut work, and I think there is room for Tom Ryan grow and produce more gay YA fiction, but, as per my extremely hard-to-please literary standards, for now I'll have to withhold my seal of approval. But by all means, give it a shot. You may have like it more than me.
Way to Go is set in early/mid-90s small town Canada (are there any gay teen books out there that actually take place in a BIG city or some shit? No? hm...) and centers around Danny, the hero of the piece. Danny is, you guessed it, coping with confusing feelings of homosexuality and big-fish-little-pond syndrome. Everyone suspects it, but he's in denial. And when the mysteriously cool New York City girl shows up in town and happens to be a co-worker at his new summer job, he's out to prove he's totally into the v-jay.
Alright, now Way to Go isn't going to take up too much of your time. This is a weekend afternoon read at the most. I knocked it out in 2 evenings, thanks to being damned tired from this new job 'o mine. Anyways, the pacing is quick and coupled with the low page count, this one will be a breeze for most readers. Unfortunately, that's one of the factors hurting this book.
The problem I had is that I feel like we didn't accomplish much on this short ride. I never felt as though there was any clear goal in sight, other than for Danny to survive the summer before his final year of high school. I'm all for books where being gay isn't the major issue at hand, but this is a rare moment where I felt it should have been more of the book's focus. Danny may have talked plenty about fearing his gayness, but I never felt it.
Then there's the whole shebang about Danny realizing he loves cooking and wants to make a career out of it. It played a little like this: "Hey, you suck at washing dishes, why don't you peel potatoes? Oh, look at that, it's been a month and you're a whiz at whipping up a steak dinner. You should go to culinary school!" I take issue with that, but whatever. I guess it's possible for a 17 year old to, after 2 months working in a kitchen, be deemed good enough to apply to an elite culinary school. Stranger things have happened (like [a:Michael Griffo|3014690|Michael Griffo|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1315171537p2/3014690.jpg] getting a f%ing book deal).
And the dialogue; maybe Canadians say mean things to each other and it's all completely benign. I just find it hard to imagine someone telling me "It's none of your business," with a friendly smile on their face. Witnessing such a thing would fill me with fear of an immanent slap or make me think the person is completely unhinged. There were more than a few of these moments where the characters' words didn't seem to mesh with their actions.
One thing I was happy to NOT find here was a lot of melodrama. While the dialogue wasn't great, it was at least honest and down-to-earth. There is one notable exception to this when, after learning his son wants to be a chef, Danny's dad throws a hissy over the thought of spending money on cooking school.
I also didn't care for the final chapter. It was far too saccharine. Like a bag of Skittles tied up with a little bow made of fondant. It was way too easy and all the conflicts (if there really were any to begin with) wrapped themselves up neatly. And that's the real issue I have with the book: I don't feel like anyone grew or evolved as a character. Danny barely manages to only come out a step or two ahead from where we first met him and everyone else is just kinda of there in the background, doing their thing.
Honestly, the book isn't bad. I've read bad books (still lookin' at you, Griffo. You useless mother#*$& son of a $*@# who eats %&^@ for breakfast. GAH, IHATEYOUSOMUCH!) and this isn't what I would consider one. But it's definitely not going on my must-read list either. It's a solid 2.5 to 3 that I would put alongside Brent Hartinger's Geography Club and David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy, two other books that left me equally underwhelmed.
It's definitely a debut work, and I think there is room for Tom Ryan grow and produce more gay YA fiction, but, as per my extremely hard-to-please literary standards, for now I'll have to withhold my seal of approval. But by all means, give it a shot. You may have like it more than me.
zoraidasolo's review against another edition
5.0
This is a beautiful story about a young guy coming face to face with who he really is.
carrionlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Ryan gets the options of small town life down perfectly. I think the book also strikes a balance rarely found in LGBTQ YA. The plot of Way to Go focuses just as much on Danny’s struggle with what to do with his life and his relationship with his family as it does on his being gay.
Overall, a great book for LGBTQ kids, but also easily relatable for anyone that’s ever felt like an outsider where they grew up.
Overall, a great book for LGBTQ kids, but also easily relatable for anyone that’s ever felt like an outsider where they grew up.
emmaghanem's review against another edition
4.0
I don't know why Way To Go isn't extremely popular in the YA community yet. It was a fantastic book full of meaning, and also just an adorable story. The main character Danny, has some trouble coming to terms with being gay. He tries to hide it, and deny it. The story is basically him trying to come to terms with it. I thought that he was an incredible character. He was kind and sincere to others, and he wasn't a jerk like his friend Kierce. I wish this book was a little thicker, so that I could have more to discuss! Way To Go was a very short story, but an extremely powerful one. I recommend this book to everyone.
georgie321's review
lighthearted
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
3.5
hazelrobin's review
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
twinleafs's review against another edition
2.0
I really liked this book, but it reminded me of Perks of Being a Wallflower in more ways than one. Obviously there were other characters, but there was a straight guy who tried picking up everyone, a straight guy who was winging life, a might-be-gay guy (the main character), and then two girls that have connections with the main character. There were also mix tapes and dancing, and even a fight about how the main character was trying to hide how he was (possibly) gay. Did I mention it takes place in the '90s?
Like I said, I loved the book, but at the same time the similarities are visible for anyone who's read Perks.
Like I said, I loved the book, but at the same time the similarities are visible for anyone who's read Perks.
ashrocketship's review
3.0
This was a nice, solid coming-of-age-gay-in-the-90s story with a likable narrator and a good cast of characters to spend time with. It felt simultaneously very early 2010s and 90s and also way less Canadian than I expected. I'm betting this still felt like a big deal when it was published and it's sort of funny to feel sort of flat about it now because we've had so many more books with queer protagonists and so many who get more substantial happy endings, but this still had a nice arc with a nice message and a happy enough ending and I'm glad to have read it.