Mike's family moves from Wisconsin to Virginia in the summer before he goes to high school and his feisty little sister goes to middle school. At school, he has friends, but Victor in some of the same classes is a bit of a bully, while Sean who joins the French class some time later becomes a real friend through a shared project and then some more. And then Mike's birthday on New Year's Eve changes everything. I liked the sparse style of writing, and the last third made me cry. ( )

I cried. I connected. I felt thankful for who I am. This book is a fast read and I’m thankful I stayed up late to know the ending. ( )

After meeting Sean, Mike struggles to accept himself and to be accepted by others, particularly in light of his parents’ religious-based intolerance. An engrossing story about family, first love, and homophobia.

This book gives someone a vivid close and terribly descriptive picture of the journey to self-discovery. At times, the view is a kaleidoscopic one but then it closes in on itself. Of all the books I've read about LGBT characters, this one has the most heart. The story is wide enough to affect families, teens, and adults. It's a lesson in the preciousness of life and how one person's decision-making can end in a spiral of terrible consequences. The book is a conversation about conversion. It's open and it helps people that have never experienced issues with sexuality come to some conclusion that LGBT teenagers have different unique experiences to grapple with. ( )

Mike and his family move from Wisconsin to Virginia for his father's new job. Mike isn't thrilled, as he's in high school, but the family is used to doing what Mike's overbearing father desires. Quiet Mike, who loves art more than sports, doesn't fit in well with his religious family, or with a lot of the boys at his school. Quickly, he finds himself being bullied by several kids at school and pressured by his father to join a school sports team. But Mike finds comfort when he meets Sean, another kid at school, and the two become fast friends. However, other people at school have an eye on the pair's friendship, too.

This book is heartbreaking in many ways, but hard to describe without completely ruining the entire plot. It's a lovely gem of a LGBT book. It's difficult to read: the dialogue is all jammed together (no quotation marks, for example) and in my ARC, there wasn't even a space between the start of a new section of thought. Once you get used to that, it's easier to read, and you get into the flow of Mike's thoughts. Tension builds slowly, as you learn more about Mike, his life, and his inner thoughts and desires.

I wish this book could be standard reading for gay youth--and their parents. It's poignant and truthful, albeit it hurt my heart in many places. I don't typically seem to read a lot of YA novels with male narrators, but this is the second I've picked up recently, and it blew the other one out of the water. I quickly grew fond of Mike, whom I wanted to take in, and I loved his spunky younger sister, Toby. Mike's never-ending need for detail grows old at times (just get on with story already), but this is still a worthy read, and certainly a great tale for LGBT youth. It definitely affected me deeply.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 9/13/2016. ( )