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A review by aashkevr
Homo by Michael Harris
2.0
This book could have been so much more than it was. I was incredibly hopeful about it, but it seemed too short and underdeveloped, and I thought that it was also very misleading in terms of plot and blurb. Everything happened at rapid quickfire pace and although an attempt at resolution was provided, nothing actually felt "resolved". For me, this was more of an "issues" book and not an actual novel. I didn't connect to the characters and I was interested on a more academic, kinda distant level then I was in the actual immediacy of the plot.
Step 1: Main character is accidentally outted by his best friend (but really himself) right before the beginning of the new school year.
Step 2: Main character feels alienated by being outted, and is not comfortable with the only other gay boy in the school.
Step 3: Main character starts making dating profiles on websites mentioned by only other gay boy.
Step 4: Main character meets someone and because he is feeling alienated from friends and family decides that this relationship is super serious and ignores lots of warning signs in an effort to feel that he belongs somewhere.
Step 5: Main character loses virginity to new guy. MC learns NG is HIV+. MC gets mad at NG too and now has no one he really connects to.
Step 6: Only other gay guy tries to commit suicide because people are awful to him, esp. MC who doesn't want to have too much "gay" camaraderie. Cause ... that's not what defines him. And stuff.
Step 7: MC is not HIV+. MC sticks up for OOGG. Main character patches things with old best friend. MC rekindles friendship, but not relationship with his HIV+ first.
Thus ends the novel.
What isn't covered:
1) Why the MC is so fricking unlikable and mean to everyone around him and why anyone still likes him even though he is essentially a snotty jerk.
2) That there are actually more than three kinds of gay people.
3) MC's actual transformation into a better person, which one constantly assumes is coming, but is wrong to assume.
4) That HIV isn't really a "homosexual issue" the way it once was.
5) That the drugs were probably just as much of a threat to MC's wellbeing as this other stuff.
6) That romance and love are not dead ideas.
7) That your "first time" is important and shouldn't be given up lightly
8) That you can't just run away from your problems
9) That parents may not be fully supportive, but if they try, that should probably be acknowledged.
I got caught up in my list. Anyways, there was a lot missing. And I wasn't asking for an HEA (not with that title and blurb), but I did come away feeling like this was a book about HIV, and not really about the MC. It showed some of the trials that a homosexual youth can go through, but it didn't delve into them. It more seemed to flit from issue to issue. Oh, now I've been outted. Now my friends are irritated with me. Now I am lying to my parents. Now I am doing drugs. Now I am having disappointing and unfulfilling sex. Now I am learning about things I should have known before. etc. I don't know. I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. There was something missing. For lack of a better word, I will call it "soul".
I don't think I would recommend this to a young person struggling with sexuality. It's not that kind of book, and it certainly doesn't resolve itself into any useful lessons, or at least, none that the MC is aware of. What readers take for themselves is probably a different story.
Step 1: Main character is accidentally outted by his best friend (but really himself) right before the beginning of the new school year.
Step 2: Main character feels alienated by being outted, and is not comfortable with the only other gay boy in the school.
Step 3: Main character starts making dating profiles on websites mentioned by only other gay boy.
Step 4: Main character meets someone and because he is feeling alienated from friends and family decides that this relationship is super serious and ignores lots of warning signs in an effort to feel that he belongs somewhere.
Step 5: Main character loses virginity to new guy. MC learns NG is HIV+. MC gets mad at NG too and now has no one he really connects to.
Step 6: Only other gay guy tries to commit suicide because people are awful to him, esp. MC who doesn't want to have too much "gay" camaraderie. Cause ... that's not what defines him. And stuff.
Step 7: MC is not HIV+. MC sticks up for OOGG. Main character patches things with old best friend. MC rekindles friendship, but not relationship with his HIV+ first.
Thus ends the novel.
What isn't covered:
1) Why the MC is so fricking unlikable and mean to everyone around him and why anyone still likes him even though he is essentially a snotty jerk.
2) That there are actually more than three kinds of gay people.
3) MC's actual transformation into a better person, which one constantly assumes is coming, but is wrong to assume.
4) That HIV isn't really a "homosexual issue" the way it once was.
5) That the drugs were probably just as much of a threat to MC's wellbeing as this other stuff.
6) That romance and love are not dead ideas.
7) That your "first time" is important and shouldn't be given up lightly
8) That you can't just run away from your problems
9) That parents may not be fully supportive, but if they try, that should probably be acknowledged.
I got caught up in my list. Anyways, there was a lot missing. And I wasn't asking for an HEA (not with that title and blurb), but I did come away feeling like this was a book about HIV, and not really about the MC. It showed some of the trials that a homosexual youth can go through, but it didn't delve into them. It more seemed to flit from issue to issue. Oh, now I've been outted. Now my friends are irritated with me. Now I am lying to my parents. Now I am doing drugs. Now I am having disappointing and unfulfilling sex. Now I am learning about things I should have known before. etc. I don't know. I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. There was something missing. For lack of a better word, I will call it "soul".
I don't think I would recommend this to a young person struggling with sexuality. It's not that kind of book, and it certainly doesn't resolve itself into any useful lessons, or at least, none that the MC is aware of. What readers take for themselves is probably a different story.