Another weekend is over and it's time for another review from the review team. This week, Timothy M has taken the chance to review "Yankee" by The Zot.

Yankee
TheZot

Reviewer: Timothy M.
Status: Complete
Word Count: 80,483

This story sat unfinished on my favorite stories list for years, but in 2019 @TheZot realized the last three chapters were not present on GA and uploaded them. Some readers argue the story still feels incomplete, and I can see their point. It’s definitely open-ended and sadly so. Therefore, be warned – Yankee has no HEA or conflict resolution.

Why do I recommend it even so? Partly it’s because I feel a kinship with the main character, who has no idea how to navigate in the world of teens-in-high-school. The social rules are unknown, people are incomprehensible, and navigating in crowds or new places is scary. The reason for this becomes clear after a few chapters, but there are subtle hints from the beginning, and perhaps you can guess just from my descriptions here. However, I bet all of us have worried about fitting in, when we were teens.

Justin does his best, and seeing the interactions from his POV, but knowing what people around him expect and why they react in various ways, makes the story special and interesting. He spends a lot of his time running and doing martial arts training, which is useful in several situations. Almost by accident, he starts to hang out with a small group of people who gradually become his friends, much to his surprise. They help him and make him feel accepted, but sometimes he is the one to come up with unexpected solutions to their problems.

To cite @Marty: I like the way you are slowly fleshing out the characters in this story, instead of simply having them all as two-dimensional.

The difficult part of the story comes with Justin having to deal with someone being attracted to him, but refusing to admit it. At first it’s funny, but then the situation derails, and neither of them is able to fix it. I kept hoping they would spend time together as friends and gradually work their way to a better understanding of each other and the possibility of a relationship, but the background issues are too much to overcome, especially for the other guy. The explanation for that was the tragic part of the story, mostly because it was realistic in all its hurtful ignorance.

Have I scared you off? Well, I admit this story may need several deep breaths and plenty of chocolate or other comforts. But sometimes it’s needed to describe what @IBEX calls: The hurt, the anguish we sometimes have to face growing up....

Category: Fiction  Genres:  Drama  Tags:  teen, school, modern  Rating: Everyone