WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 51. The Boy Who Came in From the Cold by B.G. Thomas

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17861678

Contemporary gay fiction stories, especially romance stories, exist in all facets and locations. B.G. Thomas is not a wildly known gay male author from the American Heartland of Missouri, but I feel a need to showcase interesting stories and warm concept stories. Most of the gay fiction stories that I have read with US-based setting occur in well-known urban centers, so a story centered in Kansas City, Missouri drew my attention for its unique setting. While the story is slightly dated from 2013, it doesn’t feel out of place with contemporary fiction novels from current authors. However, there are elements in the story that do feel a little too extraordinary to be believable, almost Dickensian in the way B.G Thomas tried to portray character situations. There are genuinely brilliant ideas here and awkward concepts that seem out of place.

Length-wise, it is 284 pages long and 7 hours 57 minutes long on audible. It is a decent read for most readers, the story is straightforward with very limited angst and little drama.

Plot: Todd Burton, 20 years old, has found himself jobless and homeless in Kansas City, Missouri. Having ran away from his hometown of Buckman and his verbally abusive stepfather, he tried to establish himself as chef, but failed. While eking out a meager living in the city, he loses his job and his landlord kicks him out of his slum apartment. As the snow begins to fall, Todd seeks shelter in the lobby of the Oscar Wilde Apartments, an LGBT-friendly housing complex. Gabe Richards, a 30-year-old business manager and an openly gay man, seeing the poor condition of Todd offers him a place to stay for a few days. Todd has mixed feelings about living with an openly gay man, since he’s been taught from a young age to fear “Fags” by his abusive stepfather. However, Gabe can tell through Todd’s emotional disposition, his glances of lust at his body, and Todd’s fascination with muscle magazines that Todd is likely a closeted member of LGBT spectrum. However, despite Gabe’s attraction towards Todd, he fears making mistakes with Todd as he had with two of his prior romantic interests. Over the course of weeks, Todd begins to accept his sexuality and reveals more of his backstory to Gabe. Todd left home due to the betrayal of his best friend, who he had his first gay experience with, having sex with his former girlfriend. Gabe also opens up to Todd as well regarding his last boyfriend Daniel betraying him by having an affair with a 17-year-old gay runaway, who they had hosted at Gabe’s apartment. Their passion grows and they have sex with one another, cementing their status as boyfriends. However, neither man has ever had a truly positive relationship and are trying to figure out what is the best way to be supportive lovers. Additionally, Todd’s ambitions of being a chef is highlighted throughout the novel, while Gabe’s innate skill at business negotiations are also shown as well. The ending is positive for Gabe and Todd with a Happily-Ever-After.

Review: Well, I don’t hate this book, but I have to admit I know it is deeply flawed, even if I like the themes and concepts of the story. Goodreads has basically written it off as a mediocre gay romance story with poor plotting and impossible to believe character dynamics, while I think it’s not that simple. I actually like the characters in the story and think there are redeeming factors, despite agreeing that it is unbelievable.

First, I must point out Todd Burton is likely bisexual with male partners in terms of sexual orientation, despite the author having the character declare himself “Gay”. That’s one of those points that I think some LGBT readers may dislike about the characterization, because Todd demonstrates he loved his girlfriend and was faithful to her, plus he enjoyed heterosexual pornography. However, Todd does have a nascent interest in men by his own admission, enjoying muscle men, and sexually finding certain men arousing even before he comes out to Gabe. I mentioned Bisexual Erasure before in some of my previous reviews, I think if a reader dislikes those kinds of tropes in gay fiction, this is not a good book for you. However, I look at this book with an eye to labelling “Gay” vs. “Bisexual” as being very difficult. You can be married for decades and still declare yourself as gay without any issue. I think the problem here with the character was that B.G Thomas didn’t develop Todd fully to show the distinctions of what makes him “Gay” versus “Bi”.

On the other hand, Gabe is a really well-written character with all the complexity and backstory that makes him somewhat believable. His business skills and negotiations were showed off in full through various scenes of assisting Todd from getting Todd’s landlord to return Todd’s belongings to helping Todd deal with his avaricious stepfather and mother. Above all, Gabe’s flawed nature in love is an interesting exploration. His former boyfriend, Daniel, who was 5 years young than him was someone he found sexually interesting. He’s a gay man attracted to younger men than himself, but he has a line in the sand, when he met the 17-year-old gay runaway, Brett, initially. He felt attraction to the kid, but Brett was both underaged and formerly sexually abused by his own father. Daniel though did not have such hang-ups and had sex with Brett behind Gabe’s back. His resistance to starting a relationship with Todd is quite believable and the slow development of the romance between Gabe and Todd becomes far more fluid due to this revelation. Gabe isn’t a perfect gay lover, but the imperfection makes his character’s actions understandable.

There are a lot of negatives about this story, but to me the biggest issue is how implausible some of the elements appear to be. From Todd’s living condition to a literal secret family fortune, there are plot elements that just seem to be tacked on at the end just so there’s a perfect ending. It reduced both Todd and Gabe into strawmen characters, if all their past accomplishments and adversity meant nothing to the perfect ending. They are thrown money, happiness, careers, and a clear conscience due to Gabe’s actions against Daniel and Brett. As a reader and author, I like happy endings, but I think my characters earned their happy endings, they never get them from me like this.

My Review: 2.50 out of 5.00, I don’t hate this book and there are interesting ideas, but there’s also a few issues that hinder it from being anything more than a fluffy gay fairy tale.