High School Gay Romance

Presenting High School life in any form is fraught with danger; either authors presume too much knowledge about how its social mechanisms work or they lose themselves in the interactions that have little or nothing to do with the story they are telling. This book falls into the first category; and that's not the worst of its shortcomings

Imagine a high school somewhere not quite in the middle of nowhere in the 21st century. The usual ploy is to introduce the new pupil as the start of the story. This always works, except when it doesn't. The new pupil comes as a clean sheet, there is no prior story, no trauma, no nothing. And he is the one at the center of the story. Clean sheet works if another person is center stage and then finds out bit by bit what had been before.

The effect of this for me was a feeling of limbo; Liam, the new pupil wasn't someone I could identify with on any level, because there was just this gaping hole of history not told. It doesn't improve on that score as the story progresses. His mercurial changes from too shy to talk to telling the bullies to go and see where the world is darkest, his changes from smiling bimbo to cry baby every other page didn't help to make him approachable. I could have boxed his ears more than once.

That leaves the other half of the pairing; any romance needs two, right? Alex is so much at the periphery of the story at the beginning, it takes him ages to claim his place in the storyline. It took me to chapter 14 to finally find him a bit believable. There aren't many more chapters, spoiler alert.

And the whole time, the lack of social profiling in the school hierarchy is blatantly obvious. Swimmers don't make the top of the social pile, in this case that would be the basketball team. They are mentioned, but strangely absent when it goes to party, to bully, to be pain in the neck, and just to be where they are not wanted. Which throws the whole lot of that onto two or three guys in the swimming team who try but fail to do it right.

In the end, the two find each other; but again, the story is bloodless and uninspiring. Alex suddenly finds he's gay; all the steps in between being not gay and being gay are just considered a given. He goes on long skate outings alone, but the thought process is skipped. For people who are not gay, it's totally baffling; for me it was irritating. The whole book somehow lacked substance to fill my mind belly.

I got Swimmer Boy by Jay Argent for free as a Kindle edition as part of an Amazon promotion. That is the price I would pay for a future book by the same author. I don't know how long the promotion will last, but maybe you want to try it for free while you can and make up your own mind. I do admit I might be just too picky for something that is written for quick consumption over a cup of tea and a cookie.

Further reading
When a Spell Goes Wrong
Summers in Maine
Coming Out Overwhelms Many Teenagers