William King

I would reflect what AC has already said, this story has totally captivated me, with the many sub-plots, the personal histories of all the characters, Toph's third person reflections, and the comments on life. "Sometimes you must simply operate on instinct, like not trusting anyone who pronounces all three syllables of evening." It's a little gem of a novel, superb!

These two 13 year olds live a very charmed life in this wonderful 'fairy' tale of love at first sight. They enjoy sex two or three times a day, camp out over night, try out nearly all the sexual practices they can think of, and some sex toys! All the boys they have known and those they have met are gay. They have the most wonderfully understanding parents and Parker is unique as a sister. Even the little country shopping mall, that only has a few shops, includes a sex shop with a very obliging gay owner! So suspend belief and just enjoy this light hearted adventure in exactly the same way as do the two 'horn dogs', Marty and Jesse. I look forward to reading about their adventures in California where I can only imagine the gay encounters and experiences that await them!

This third book and chapter in the lives of Jesse and Marty was full of love and tenderness along the road to self discovery, and never more so than with their encounter with the Devlin twins. The final scene when they parted company had a force and power that is unique to those moments we have all surely shared, at one time or another, in our childhood, when we too had to part company with friends. It strikes to the very heart of one's being and was extremely moving. Brilliantly done!

So Ted switched the drinks... very clever, great start, intrigue. On a different note, I like chapters of 1200 to 2000 words, you can read one or two and don't forget where you are (pity there's no place holder, like turning the corner of a page... haha). Looking forward now to chapter two.

This second episode (book) is just as good and well written as the first. The story is engaging and so are the two characters, Jesse and Marty. The description of the argument between the two 13 year olds, which just stopped short of a fight, was perfectly described. That moment was special, because it is exactly how boys of that age react, brilliant.

Yes well, it deserves a review (even if I'm a tad late discovering you). I like the story of the boys discovering each other even if I have to suspend belief that it would happen quite like that in every detail, but hey, it's fiction, right? I love the little touches:"Yup. I got tired of hearing the movers call my mom's china cabinet dat beeg sonhofabeetch..." Well written, good story, looking forward to the other books.

I like the characters you've created even though they could do with a bit more depth, so we get to know them better, but maybe that will come. Sometimes it's not easy to follow everything that's happening, because there are lots of characters and three different stories, but that's ok. There are things which make me smile when I read your story, not always to do with the plot, but sometimes because of how you write, like we have to know everyone's age, who's gay and who might be. The main point though is I enjoy reading it and so do a few other people, it surprised me that you had no reviews.

It's a very long chapter that attempts to cover two years in the boy's life at a treatment center. The history is interesting, but a lot of things don't quite ring true. The way Will talks doesn't reflect for me how a 12 or 14 year old would speak. Some of the actions of the doctors also seem odd, not how I would have thought they should be in reality. To be positive though the story itself is interesting even if it's not at all believable that six year old boy would be sold into child prostitution and live with a trucker for six years being fed heroin. The choice of potential adoptive parents is also not believable. I don't mean to be hyper critical and I know America, where the story takes place, is not at all like Europe and I've seen the news where a young girl has been held as a sex slave for years and years, so I freely admit that I'm probably not the best person to judge just how far from or close to reality the story might be. Will, is a likeable main character, the story is well developed and I congratulate you on tackling a sensative topic in a pretty good way.

It happened to me just like you described many many years ago when I was young, but I still remember it, so you can see it has a huge effect on people. Walking home I had my arm around my friend's shoulders, it was late, dark out, on a main road. A car slowed down and the guys inside wound down the windows and they gestured shouting at us "Fucking queers!" (we don't say faggot in England). I don't believe you ever consider your reaction, it just happens. Our reaction was to gesture and swear back at them. It was only afterwards that you realise, whatever kind of reaction you had, that it was a shock, because it was violent and unexpected. When you have time to think about it, and you do think about it, over and over, you realise how potentially dangerous the situation was.

When I was halfway through I said how inadequate I felt trying to review such a superb and well written novel, now I've reached the end I feel exactly the same. I cried often during this emotional tale, I lived the story, it was a great experience and one I will never forget. It's not often you can thank the author for the novel they have written, but here I can. Thank you so much.

Perhaps a lot depends on where you live. If you live in a big city you might never know your neighbours. If you live, like I do in rural France, you would not walk past someone without saying 'hello', it's rude and the only people that act like that are those from the big cities. Here people are always stopping to talk, it's normal, exactly the same way as it's normal that the kids respect adults, that you shake hands and kiss. Getting to know people here is as easy as talking.

I am halfway through this novel now and I feel compelled to write a review, but I also feel completely inadequate in trying to do so. How can one review a novel that is so well written, that is a masterpiece of narrative description, that takes the reader on a journey in the footsteps of the main character? From the very first page this is a rollercoaster of emotions, with exceptional insight into the thinking of this youngster, a thinking conditioned by his maltreatment. The poetic decriptions of the countryside through which the boy travels contrast brilliantly with the darker elements he must struggle to overcome. It is without any doubt one of the best novels I have read and I find it almost impossible to put down. A great novel like this leaves you wanting to reach the end although reluctantly, because you don't want it to finish. Brillant, thank you.

Um, difficult question and it was a long time ago, but I don't think I felt bullied out of it, I liked tha Action Man and I appreciated my parents bought me a quite expensive present, but what I wanted was the Sindy doll. If you like it was just "just another brick in the wall" learning that boys are blue and girls are pink, it's what all kids get taught. I don't think that my parents were any different from thousands of others, I guess you can't help the stereotyping when it's mum and dad, might be different with mum and mum or dad and dad!

I've never been single, from sharing an apartment to relationships, some of which were long, some short, some weak, some strong, sometimes there was more than one other person sharing my life, but never having been single doesn't mean there haven't been times when I was alone.

When I was around 7 or 8 years old one of my best friends at school was a black girl called Yvonne, I really liked her a lot because she had a Sindy doll (that was the British version of Barbie). We would spend hours playing together dressing up her Sindy doll. When it was Yvonne's birthday I was even allowed to go with my mum to the local toy shop and choose a dress to buy for Yvonne's Sindy doll. I really enjoyed that. One day I thought maybe I could ask for a doll for myself, even though I knew they were quite expensive. Well that day arrived when it was my birthday, but I was a little disappointed that it wasn't Sindy I unwrapped, but Action Man. I had to be content with spending my pocket money on rifles and army stuff rather than pretty dresses. Oh I didn't mind too much because afterall I was a boy and boys don't play at dressing up Sindy dolls, do they!

Will Adam ever work out what he wants, is it Sam, Seth, Yuri? Yuri hurt him, Sam, well she's a girl! Seth... Adam secretly likes having friends who care about him, but he wants to keep them all at arms length. Let's face it, he's completely fucked up! He even used to chase after his brother with a knife. I really want to see what happens next.

The boys are growing up and getting clued in, it is a shame they were so nieve, but I don't blame them for that. At 11 years old I heard the word "homosexual" for the first time, I remember like it was yesterday, asking my dad about it: "Dad what's a homosexual?" I asked him. His reaction was perhaps not too bad, "It's a nancy boy," he replied and thinking I might not fully understand he added "men who like other men." Well I knew that a nancy boy was a sissy and cry baby, every kid knew that, but men who like other men. That hit me like a warning, because I thought to myself,that's me, but I definitately ain't a nancy boy. I was careful from then on.

This chapter was incredibly moving and emotional, it actually brought me close to tears. It is terribly painful how adults can be so self righteously cruel and that parents could reject their own child. The destruction of innocence is wicked beyond belief, thank god there was a glimmer of hope from the reaction of the coach.

One word describes this tale and it is not a bad word: Convoluted - or you may prefer, complicated, complex, involved, intricate, elaborate, impenetrable, serpentine, labyrinthine, tortuous, tangled. Thinking about it perhaps it's Adam I'm describing not the story which simply tells his tale. Great chapter!

I stumbled across your story and read the prologue, despite the warning I decided to read the rest. The first chapter is well written and now I'm hooked. I am fascinated to read about life in the south (USA), just forgive my ignorance and tell me what a BB gun is. I also admire you for telling your story.

The character you have created with Adam, the anonymous blogger, is intriguing. He is both a victim of his circumstances and a victim of himself, perhaps it's not possible to separate the two. His family has posed heavily on his life, but it is he himself who hides from everything, his friends, his readers, himself? Does he care about anyone other than himself? I think he does, but I also think that he would like not to. Does he really believe what he writes in his blog? Is life just made of memories and if you lost those memories you could start over? Is that what he wants, to start his life again?

I sympathise with the language problem when English is not your first language, but I got past that. It is a very interesting story and you develop everything very well so that after finishing this chapter I want to read more. I have the impression that your story is written on different levels by which I mean it's more than just a story about Adam, his friends, his family and being gay, it's also got a lot of yourself in it. I know that just as Adam reads all the comments on his blog and gets encouragement from his followers, so do you. Just one question: does Adam also have a copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as well as having downloaded everything from Monty Python?