It’s 1986, and what should have been the greatest summer of Nate Bradford’s life goes sour when his parents suddenly divorce. Now, instead of spending his senior year in his hometown of Austin, Texas, he’s living with his father in Warren, Wyoming, population 2,833 (and Nate thinks that might be a generous estimate). There’s no swimming pool, no tennis team, no mall–not even any MTV. The entire … entire school’s smaller than his graduating class back home, and in a town where the top teen pastimes are sex and drugs, Nate just doesn’t fit in.
Then Nate meets Cody Lawrence. Cody’s dirt-poor, from a broken family, and definitely lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Nate’s dad says Cody’s bad news. The other kids say he’s trash. But Nate knows Cody’s a good kid who’s been dealt a lousy hand. In fact, he’s beginning to think his feelings for Cody go beyond friendship.
Admitting he might be gay is hard enough, but between small-town prejudices and the growing AIDS epidemic dominating the headlines, a town like Warren, Wyoming, is no place for two young men to fall in love.
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Although most of this author’s books are adult M/M, this one is fine for YA readers. Set in 1986, this is the story of two high-school seniors trying to make it through their last year of school. For Nate, it’s part of a painful change, with his parents divorced and his father moving them to a dead-end little Wyoming town. Nate’s friends were left behind, the sports he enjoyed are impossible – the school not only doesn’t have a swim-team, the town doesn’t even have a real pool. Nate feels betrayed and marooned in a dead end.
Cody was born in that dead end, and doesn’t see a way out. The son of single mom who barely scrapes by waitressing, Cody is an outcast at school for both his poverty and as the local gay kid. When he spots Nate, one day near the end of summer vacation, he sees the chance to have someone to talk to for a little while. Nate doesn’t know how town works– the cliques and power structures he’ll have to choose between once the school year starts. For a few golden weeks, Cody has a friend. But he knows their friendship can’t last past the start of school.
The 1980s setting flavors and informs this story. The onslaught of AIDS, just beginning to loom as a threat to young gay men, is part of the reality these young men have to deal with. But at the same time, the main issues are timeless. This is far more about class and wealth, about social status and rank, than anything unique to the 80s.
Nate’s not rich, but his dad has a solid job with the town police force, and he has never really gone without anything. Cody is dirt-poor, choose-between-worn-out-shoes-and-the-electric-bill poor. And Nate’s experience is such that he can’t imagine or comprehend how that works. Cody hides his poverty, because it’s one of the several strikes against him in town. But Nate is also blind to the level of insufficiency that is possible. He can’t picture not having a coat when it’s cold, and he can’t understand the desperate pride of the really poor that makes a gift that can’t be repaid feel like a hand-out. Much of the tension in the story comes from the two guys’ disparity of experience and expectations.
There is also homophobia among the locals, which contributes to Cody’s outcast status, but the overriding issue is the life-draining effect of poverty. Everyone in this town is trapped, with jobs leaving, houses for sale, opportunities declining. The rich kids are bored and engage in petty mischief, and the poor ones are scrabbling for opportunities that are disappearing. Nate’s dad is an example of someone who would consider themselves fair and well-meaning, but who is clearly influenced by how much money someone has.
The boys’ relationship is a slow burn, a gradual awakening on Nate’s part, and a slow willingness on Cody’s to let Nate in. There is a painful center to the book, and a sweetly hopeful end. Sadly, the issues of grinding poverty, prejudiced law enforcement, and class disdain, are still contemporary. AIDS is still with us, although less of a specter than in this era. Homophobia clearly still exists, although it’s getting better. And working your way through college is now a pipe-dream. Our modern world differs in the details, but the heart of this story is still true today.
I was reminded of this book today. It was one of my first MM romance novel that was mainly about the two heroes, and it set the bar very high for finding equally wonderful reads!