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A review by edith01
Afterglow by Phil Stamper
2.0
This was a big disappointment to me because I really liked golden boys but this one was just so mediocre and .. fine. If you’re looking for books about a friendship group of queer boys this really is the one though. The first book is all about them changing and growing as individuals and then this one is about that growth affecting their group and their growth together and towards their future after high school. Just unfortunately this one didn’t work for me like the first did.
Firstly the pacing was so weird. This book took place over their whole senior year, which is fine as plenty of ya contemporary books take place over a school year. But it just didn’t really work for this. There were many time jumps of weeks or months and they were very sporadically placed throughout and then disclosed to the reader at the start of the chapter through one of the boys’ narration in a very jarring manner. It also just made it feel like we were rushing through everything and gave the events and the character arcs the sense of underdevelopment. It was just really off putting to jump from summer to november to christmas to march etc within 100 or so pages and between chapters with only minimal events in. Like I said it obviously can be done in a YA contemporary novel of this length, but it wasn’t successful here and definitely not seamless in the way it wanted to be.
Then the plot .. well there wasn’t really one. There were a few little plotlines but we were mainly just meandering through this school year and rehashing the same problems over again. Like oh will Reese and Heath stay together at different colleges next year, Heath ignoring his obvious beginnings of a shoulder injury and continuing to play baseball, Gabe being sad about his long distance boyfriend and Sal not wanting to go to college. It was just kind of really boring, mostly. The most interesting parts were Reese exploring drag and Sal running for mayor (but there wasn’t much that actually happened with that,plus it was really giving Ben from parks and rec being his town mayor at 18 … like that’s all I could think about so sorry). But none of it really seemed to fit together so with the weird time pacing too the book felt really scattered and all over the place instead of a well woven together story like the first book did. Which is strange because in golden boys they’re all in different places doing different things and yet that one felt more consistent even though in afterglow they’re all together in their town preparing for graduation and college etc.
Which leads me on to my next point about the characters. They just kind of .. gave me nothing and I felt nothing about them and just didn't really care. Which is such a shame because what I wanted more of from golden boys was the four boys actually together and interacting as a group (although I did enjoy their individual journeys). So when I found out afterglow was happening, I was really excited because I thought it would be about them being friends and how they would fit together and be as a group after all the changes and developments of golden boys. But honestly, the friendship is just.. fine. It’s fine yeah but they don't feel like the most developed relationships and I just didn't really feel anything about them, like pain or giddiness or laughing at their banter or anything, and I didn't really care about them as individuals either. They all have like a distinct thing about them that makes them different from each boy and they are different people with some differing personality traits. But just reading each of the POVs, they all felt the same and interchangeable. No distinct voice at all. I honestly can’t tell if this was different to how it was in golden boys or if their POVs were just distinct there because they were all doing very different things. And I couldn't really discern their personalities and individualities from the dialogue or the way they acted around each other. So it was just a big let down because I just didn't care about the characters anymore. Perhaps I just left it too long after reading Golden Boys and I lost that connection and just didn't have the ideas of them from golden boys in my head? Like I vaguely remember what happened and there was a good recap of the actual things that happened to them all in golden boys, but maybe I left it too long and just forgot their personalities. I don't know. Whatever the issue was I just didn’t connect with them at all this time around.
So it was mostly a huge let down for me; boring and badly paced and just felt like an unnecessary sequel as it didn’t feel like the characters really moved any further forward from where they were at the end of the last book.
Like I said though, if you’re looking for a book like this, four queer boys exploring their present and future and what they want to do and being unapologetically queer and exploring some important teenage, I think you’ll enjoy this series and it’ll deliver the elements you’re looking for in a queer friendship novel. Hopefully.
Firstly the pacing was so weird. This book took place over their whole senior year, which is fine as plenty of ya contemporary books take place over a school year. But it just didn’t really work for this. There were many time jumps of weeks or months and they were very sporadically placed throughout and then disclosed to the reader at the start of the chapter through one of the boys’ narration in a very jarring manner. It also just made it feel like we were rushing through everything and gave the events and the character arcs the sense of underdevelopment. It was just really off putting to jump from summer to november to christmas to march etc within 100 or so pages and between chapters with only minimal events in. Like I said it obviously can be done in a YA contemporary novel of this length, but it wasn’t successful here and definitely not seamless in the way it wanted to be.
Then the plot .. well there wasn’t really one. There were a few little plotlines but we were mainly just meandering through this school year and rehashing the same problems over again. Like oh will Reese and Heath stay together at different colleges next year, Heath ignoring his obvious beginnings of a shoulder injury and continuing to play baseball, Gabe being sad about his long distance boyfriend and Sal not wanting to go to college. It was just kind of really boring, mostly. The most interesting parts were Reese exploring drag and Sal running for mayor (but there wasn’t much that actually happened with that,
Which leads me on to my next point about the characters. They just kind of .. gave me nothing and I felt nothing about them and just didn't really care. Which is such a shame because what I wanted more of from golden boys was the four boys actually together and interacting as a group (although I did enjoy their individual journeys). So when I found out afterglow was happening, I was really excited because I thought it would be about them being friends and how they would fit together and be as a group after all the changes and developments of golden boys. But honestly, the friendship is just.. fine. It’s fine yeah but they don't feel like the most developed relationships and I just didn't really feel anything about them, like pain or giddiness or laughing at their banter or anything, and I didn't really care about them as individuals either. They all have like a distinct thing about them that makes them different from each boy and they are different people with some differing personality traits. But just reading each of the POVs, they all felt the same and interchangeable. No distinct voice at all. I honestly can’t tell if this was different to how it was in golden boys or if their POVs were just distinct there because they were all doing very different things. And I couldn't really discern their personalities and individualities from the dialogue or the way they acted around each other. So it was just a big let down because I just didn't care about the characters anymore. Perhaps I just left it too long after reading Golden Boys and I lost that connection and just didn't have the ideas of them from golden boys in my head? Like I vaguely remember what happened and there was a good recap of the actual things that happened to them all in golden boys, but maybe I left it too long and just forgot their personalities. I don't know. Whatever the issue was I just didn’t connect with them at all this time around.
So it was mostly a huge let down for me; boring and badly paced and just felt like an unnecessary sequel as it didn’t feel like the characters really moved any further forward from where they were at the end of the last book.
Like I said though, if you’re looking for a book like this, four queer boys exploring their present and future and what they want to do and being unapologetically queer and exploring some important teenage, I think you’ll enjoy this series and it’ll deliver the elements you’re looking for in a queer friendship novel. Hopefully.