evelynyle_88's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, and Homophobia
Moderate: Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Bullying
Minor: Grief and Sexual content
luxxltyd's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Alcohol
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Mental illness
Minor: Addiction, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Grief
saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
None of the four leads stood out and the writing was too blunt and broke 'show don't tell' too much.
TWs: mentions of homophobia, alcohol
TWs: mentions of homophobia, alcohol
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol and Homophobia
itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol and Infidelity
Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders
diana_raquel's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
“I feel the past clinging to me like condensation on a glass of water. He’s everywhere around me. He’s my relief, and my protection.”
Look at me!! Reading a book I know nothing about! This was impulse buying. I liked the title and decided to buy it. However, it was a nice surprise. This is a coming-of-age story about 4 friends that decide to follow different paths during the summer before their senior year of high school. It's a story about identity, growing up, and romance. The characters are well-written and well-developed. And the story itself is also well-structured. I also liked that the reader has access to other mediums, such as images of Reese's schedule.
However, I think that the pacing is slow in the beginning. And that affected my reading experience to the point that I thought about DNF'ing the book. After the friends went their separate ways, the story becomes more dynamic but, in the beginning, it was very slow for my liking.
Still, it is a solid reading.
Look at me!! Reading a book I know nothing about! This was impulse buying. I liked the title and decided to buy it. However, it was a nice surprise. This is a coming-of-age story about 4 friends that decide to follow different paths during the summer before their senior year of high school. It's a story about identity, growing up, and romance. The characters are well-written and well-developed. And the story itself is also well-structured. I also liked that the reader has access to other mediums, such as images of Reese's schedule.
However, I think that the pacing is slow in the beginning. And that affected my reading experience to the point that I thought about DNF'ing the book. After the friends went their separate ways, the story becomes more dynamic but, in the beginning, it was very slow for my liking.
Still, it is a solid reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, and Infidelity
Minor: Sexual content
philippmk's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
This book is perfect for a light summer read, even though I read this in October. If you're looking for any more depth than that, you're not going to find it here.
Golden Boys, to its own detriment, has four main characters. As a consequence, the reader only gets to know each of them on a surface level basis. By the end of the book, it was hard for me what anyone really saw in their romantic interest (a similar issue I had with Stamper's debut novel The Gravity of Us).
For example, I don't understand why Gabe would choose to enter a long-distance relationship with Matt by the end of the book, simply because I couldn't tell what exactly connected them).
If you asked me, you could absolutely scrap both Sal's and Gabe's stories and give more space to the others. Neither of their narratives I found very compelling, as they consisted mostly of them disliking their summer jobs.
Both Reese and Heath I would have loved to see more of. We only ever get a brief glimpse of what Paris, a European metropolis, is like through the eyes of smalltown Ohio Reese when there is so much potential of exploration — both of the city and of himself. Learning to accept critique from his peers and using it to grow is also a very interesting character arc, which we unfortunately have so little room for to make it feel deserved by the end. With more space for Reese we could have also explored what it was like to grow up in a small town as a gay kid with two lesbian moms, but we don't really get into that at all.
Also, meeting Philip's conservative girlfriend so late in the book felt disappointing as this could have been an interesting character for Reese to deal with, but we only get one or two sequences with her.
Heath, however, was by far my favourite character. Not only did I find him the most likeable and down-to-Earth, but his family dynamic was the most interesting plotline of the entire book for me. Perhaps because his summer activity was less career-driven and more personal, it feels like he is the protagonist we get to know the most intimately, even if only briefly. His parents' divorce driving him to connect with the family he's never met and becoming genuine friends with his cousin was heartwarming to see. I probably could have read an entire book from his perspective.
Ultimately, I had a good time reading this book (finishing it a lot faster than I usually do), but I also see a lot of room for improvement.
Golden Boys, to its own detriment, has four main characters. As a consequence, the reader only gets to know each of them on a surface level basis. By the end of the book, it was hard for me what anyone really saw in their romantic interest (a similar issue I had with Stamper's debut novel The Gravity of Us).
If you asked me, you could absolutely scrap both Sal's and Gabe's stories and give more space to the others. Neither of their narratives I found very compelling, as they consisted mostly of them disliking their summer jobs.
Both Reese and Heath I would have loved to see more of. We only ever get a brief glimpse of what Paris, a European metropolis, is like through the eyes of smalltown Ohio Reese when there is so much potential of exploration — both of the city and of himself. Learning to accept critique from his peers and using it to grow is also a very interesting character arc, which we unfortunately have so little room for to make it feel deserved by the end. With more space for Reese we could have also explored what it was like to grow up in a small town as a gay kid with two lesbian moms, but we don't really get into that at all.
Heath, however, was by far my favourite character. Not only did I find him the most likeable and down-to-Earth, but his family dynamic was the most interesting plotline of the entire book for me. Perhaps because his summer activity was less career-driven and more personal, it feels like he is the protagonist we get to know the most intimately, even if only briefly. His parents' divorce driving him to connect with the family he's never met and becoming genuine friends with his cousin was heartwarming to see. I probably could have read an entire book from his perspective.
Ultimately, I had a good time reading this book (finishing it a lot faster than I usually do), but I also see a lot of room for improvement.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Homophobia
Moderate: Alcohol
libscote's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Oh, these four beautiful teen boys who have such a wonderful friendship. I love how they all learn something about themselves and each other over the course of one summer. I think I responded to Reese and Heath best, although part of me wonders if that is because I prefer their audiobook narrators.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcohol
emmaward55's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.5
This review is a bit of a sad one, because I'm feeling disappointment with this book.
It starts slow and the pacing felt off throughout. Having four point of view characters can be tricky at the best of times, but it was too many narrators in the allotted space. Stamper would have done better either by spending more time with each boy (and giving us a longer book) or cutting one of the POVs. This is a shame to say, because at first all the different stories sound so interesting, but we're never with any character long enough to get anything of substance from them. I know as much about these boys in chapter sixty as I did in chapter ten.
Heath suffered the worse from this, with what felt like barely any chapters to live out his child-of-divorce plot. I can list off five surface-level facts about his life and that's it. I didn't get why Reese had such a thing for him. Reese is also the other character who doesn't seem to undergo any significant transformation during his "character arc", if we can call it that. He decides he likes a slightly different field of art better than his current interest and that was... it? There was no sense of passion from him in his chapters, no inspiration or excitement in his telling of events. He was boring for an artist.
Sal and Gabe fare better overall, with the former confirming that he has no idea what his next step is, and the latter getting a shot of confidence for the first time. Sal's plot was the most interesting. I could have read an entire novel just about Sal's time interning for the Senator.
Honestly I'm losing interest in writing this review now. I don't think it was a bad book, but it had some pretty big structural flaws. The writing isn't detailed, but it's easy to read and fine if you're just looking for some lighthearted queer romance and friendship dynamics.
It starts slow and the pacing felt off throughout. Having four point of view characters can be tricky at the best of times, but it was too many narrators in the allotted space. Stamper would have done better either by spending more time with each boy (and giving us a longer book) or cutting one of the POVs. This is a shame to say, because at first all the different stories sound so interesting, but we're never with any character long enough to get anything of substance from them. I know as much about these boys in chapter sixty as I did in chapter ten.
Heath suffered the worse from this, with what felt like barely any chapters to live out his child-of-divorce plot. I can list off five surface-level facts about his life and that's it. I didn't get why Reese had such a thing for him. Reese is also the other character who doesn't seem to undergo any significant transformation during his "character arc", if we can call it that. He decides he likes a slightly different field of art better than his current interest and that was... it? There was no sense of passion from him in his chapters, no inspiration or excitement in his telling of events. He was boring for an artist.
Sal and Gabe fare better overall, with the former confirming that he has no idea what his next step is, and the latter getting a shot of confidence for the first time. Sal's plot was the most interesting. I could have read an entire novel just about Sal's time interning for the Senator.
Honestly I'm losing interest in writing this review now. I don't think it was a bad book, but it had some pretty big structural flaws. The writing isn't detailed, but it's easy to read and fine if you're just looking for some lighthearted queer romance and friendship dynamics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Cursing, and Alcohol
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual content
bimeariver's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol and Homophobia
imstephtacular's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Alcoholism
Minor: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Classism, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Grief