Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than average coming out story, 2 Aug 2005
What the jacket says, but Amazon fails to mention, is that this is a "novel for teenagers". It's about Peter, 15, who is starting to wonder whether he might be gay. Now there is no shortage of novels these days telling much the same story. This one is better than most: reasonably amusing, moderately intelligent, and refreshing for being Australian rather than American.It's a bit dated. There's less hostility now than there was when the book was published, and surely no-one still thinks you can catch AIDS by having dinner with a gay man. My other annoyance was the David character. He's just a bit too perfect. Polite, helpful, friendly to old ladies, well dressed, elegant but not camp, a gay engineer who can clean out a carburetor without getting his Armani shirt dirty. Dream on, Kate Walker. It's an easy read, and many people will find it equally forgettable, but for some 15-year-olds struggling with the "am I, aren't I" questions it could be life changing.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A sensitively handled story, 18 Nov 2008
Set in Australia, Peter is a fifteen year old boy, although he prefers "nearly sixteen"; he's a keen motor cyclist (a dirt bike) and a talented photographer. He has an older brother with whom communication is limited, and his father has separated from his mother. The main topic of talk amongst his friends is girls. This seems quite normal to Peter until a disastrous intimate moment with a pushy girls has him worried; he likes girls, but he begins to realises he does not feel that way about them. To add to his troubles he finds himself having thoughts about an older boy. Could he be the worse thing imaginable for a teenage boy, a poof? How will his friends react and his father, who expects a man to be a man and play sport (except tennis of course)?
Peter comes across as an ordinary decent lad, a typical boy in all respects; yet caring and thoughtful. The story handles his predicament as Peter himself tells it sensitively, positively, realistically and with touches of humour. The characters are well observed, Peters forbearing older brother is convincing, David the object of Peters dreams I perhaps almost too good to be true: gay, good looking, immaculate in his dress, sensitive and understanding, as at home stripping down a lawnmower as he is advising on shopping for groceries; but he provides a balance with the yobbish attitude of Peter's peers. It makes for a touching, at times moving, but always entertaining story.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Really cool , 22 May 2008
I am a teenager so I guess what the other two people have said must be true! This book is incredibly touching and the characters are all so real. You really get a sense of Peters troubles and his acceptence of his feelings for his brothers friend. Unlike most gay fiction this book isn't crammed with graphic sex but is a really sweet love story and i only wish it was longer and can't wait to see what Kate Walker does next.
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