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foxglovefiction 's review for:
Golden Boy
by Abigail Tarttelin
Note: Received as an ARC from Netgalley.
From a rising literary star Abigail Tarttelin comes an unforgettable novel about a boy, a secret, and the single traumatizing event that sends his seemingly charmed life into tailspin.
Max Walker is a golden boy. Attractive, intelligent, and athletic, he’s the perfect son, the perfect friend, and a perfect crush for the girls in his school. He’s even really nice to his little brother, Daniel, a decidedly imperfect ten-year-old. Karen Walker is a beautiful, highly successful criminal lawyer, who works hard to maintain the facade of effortless excellence she has constructed over the years. Now that the boys are getting older, now that she won’t have as much control, she worries that the facade might soon begin to crumble. Steve Walker is also a successful prosecutor, so much so that he is running for election to Parliament. The spotlight of the media is about to encircle their lives.
But the Walkers have a secret. Max was born with forty-six XX chromosomes and forty-six XY chromosomes, which makes him intersex. He identifies as a boy and so has been raised lovingly that way. When an enigmatic childhood friend named Hunter steps out of Max’s past and abuses his trust in the worst possible way, Max is forced to consider the nature of his well-kept secret. Why won’t his parents talk about it? Will his friends accept him if he is no longer the Golden Boy? Who is Max and who will he be in the years ahead?
While Max and his family face life-changing questions, revelations, and the ever-present threat that Hunter presents, Max falls in love. He might be flawed, but could he be the perfectly imperfect boyfriend for misfit Sylvie Clark, the oddball loner in his class?
Told in first person narratives alternating between Max, Daniel, Karen, Sylvie, Steve, and Archie, the physician who attempts to guide Max through this pivotal moment in his life, Golden Boy is at once a riveting novel of a family in crisis, a fascinating exploration of identity, and a coming-of-age story like no other.
Okay, so I was unsure about whether I’d like this book or not, but this book was absolutely amazing. Abigail Tarttelin used first person point of views from a few of her main characters, and that is very rarely done well, but she did it in a way that made perfect sense, and you got to see how the issues that affect Max also affect the rest of his family and friends.
I think that my favorite point of view was Max’s ten-year-old brother, Daniel, because you could read how he was trying to understand what was going on with his brother. I also loved the relationship between Daniel and Max.
One thing that I particularly love about this book is that as you read, you’re doing the journey along with Max, you get to learn about what intersexuality is and what its like to live with it, which is amazing. It makes you think about what you would have done in his situation, how you would have reacted.
I also really began to hate his mother, for reasons that you’ll discover throughout the book, and I fell entirely in love with the relationship that grew within the boys of the family after Karen left . This book did not sugarcoat much of anything, and that’s a fantastic thing. Not to mention, the cover ties into the ending of the book perfectly and that gets it brownie points from me.
From a rising literary star Abigail Tarttelin comes an unforgettable novel about a boy, a secret, and the single traumatizing event that sends his seemingly charmed life into tailspin.
Max Walker is a golden boy. Attractive, intelligent, and athletic, he’s the perfect son, the perfect friend, and a perfect crush for the girls in his school. He’s even really nice to his little brother, Daniel, a decidedly imperfect ten-year-old. Karen Walker is a beautiful, highly successful criminal lawyer, who works hard to maintain the facade of effortless excellence she has constructed over the years. Now that the boys are getting older, now that she won’t have as much control, she worries that the facade might soon begin to crumble. Steve Walker is also a successful prosecutor, so much so that he is running for election to Parliament. The spotlight of the media is about to encircle their lives.
But the Walkers have a secret. Max was born with forty-six XX chromosomes and forty-six XY chromosomes, which makes him intersex. He identifies as a boy and so has been raised lovingly that way. When an enigmatic childhood friend named Hunter steps out of Max’s past and abuses his trust in the worst possible way, Max is forced to consider the nature of his well-kept secret. Why won’t his parents talk about it? Will his friends accept him if he is no longer the Golden Boy? Who is Max and who will he be in the years ahead?
While Max and his family face life-changing questions, revelations, and the ever-present threat that Hunter presents, Max falls in love. He might be flawed, but could he be the perfectly imperfect boyfriend for misfit Sylvie Clark, the oddball loner in his class?
Told in first person narratives alternating between Max, Daniel, Karen, Sylvie, Steve, and Archie, the physician who attempts to guide Max through this pivotal moment in his life, Golden Boy is at once a riveting novel of a family in crisis, a fascinating exploration of identity, and a coming-of-age story like no other.
Okay, so I was unsure about whether I’d like this book or not, but this book was absolutely amazing. Abigail Tarttelin used first person point of views from a few of her main characters, and that is very rarely done well, but she did it in a way that made perfect sense, and you got to see how the issues that affect Max also affect the rest of his family and friends.
I think that my favorite point of view was Max’s ten-year-old brother, Daniel, because you could read how he was trying to understand what was going on with his brother. I also loved the relationship between Daniel and Max.
One thing that I particularly love about this book is that as you read, you’re doing the journey along with Max, you get to learn about what intersexuality is and what its like to live with it, which is amazing. It makes you think about what you would have done in his situation, how you would have reacted.
I also really began to hate his mother, for reasons that you’ll discover throughout the book, and I fell entirely in love with the relationship that grew within the boys of the family