“When Beck’s emotionally fragile dad starts dating the recently
single (and supposedly lesbian) mom of former bully, Jaxon Parker, Beck is not
having it. Jax isn’t happy about the situation either, holding out hope that
his moms will reunite and restore the only stable home he’s ever known. Putting
aside past differences, the boys plot to derail the budding romance between
their parents at their conservative hometown’s first-ever Rainbow Prom. Hearts
will be broken, new romance will bloom, but nothing will go down the way Beck
and Jax have planned.”
Much like Julian Winters Running with Lions, Greg Howard’s
debut novel, Social Intercourse, features an out and proud gay teen Beckett Gaines and
a supposedly straight jock named Jaxon Parker who suddenly realizes that he
might not be so straight. This jock also is having problems with his
girlfriend, who is very homophobic, so she hates Beckett and is a bit miffed
that super-popular quarterback Jaxon is spending too much time not paying
attention to her.
While the book has merits (even if the story is not
original), it does feel a bit…seedy, I guess. Howard paints Beckett Gaines a
little too shallow and bit insufferable. I wanted to like him, but found he was
written a bit holier than thou and seemed really only to care about himself.
Sure he loves his dad and tries hard to make him happy, but ultimately he comes
up short, being too much a gay stereotype to be liked by anyone except other narcissistic
twats. Jaxon, for all his questioning of whether he likes girls, boy, or both,
comes off more grounded, if not too perfect. And I'm not sure it exactly paints bisexuals in a good light as well. It seems to, more or less, say that bi-guys are only bi until the right gay guy comes around.
As for the whole theme of growing up different in a Southern
State, again the author takes the easy way out by making all people who dislike
gays horrible human beings. They’re cartoon villains and beyond redemption, so you know the
Pastor (who leads his band of hateful Christians) will get caught being
hypocritical (and that happens) and thus you can't see them anything less than cardboard figures.
I’m not sure what could’ve made this book work for me,
because underneath the flash there is some social commentary substance. But you
have to dig deep for that. And while I like the idea of a YA book being
unfiltered with talk of sexuality, I guess I was surprised on how much everyone
got away with things. I don’t want to be a prude, but no parent would allow
their child, gay or straight, to spend the night alone in their bedroom.
That’s
TV fantasy world, not reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment