Customer Reviews

Ancient Prejudice, Break to New Mutiny...

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mark A. Roeder has written a fantastic novel of the love of two high school boys. Although it shares some themes with Romeo and Juliet it is far from being a retelling of that age old tale with a modern gay twist. AP,BTNM is an original story that has the reader eager to read more.

A must read for anyone (gay, straight, teachers, parents, coaches, or friends) that knows a young gay couple. This book does a great job of letting you know how they think and feel.

Some reviewers have complained of the book sounding like it was written by a 16 year old. HELLO!!!! The main character is a 16 year old boy. I think it's one of the charms of the book that Mark Roeder has written a 16 year old boy's thoughts as if the 16 year old had written it. It takes some of us back to the days when we were there.

Enough of refuting other reviewers. This book is excellent, but I would strongly recommend your purchasing "The Soccer Field Is Empty" instead (or in addition - Mark would love that!!). The latter book is an expansion of this book. "Ancient Prejudice" relates all events from the viewpoint of Mark Bailey. "Soccer Field" includes the same chapters from Mark's viewpoint, but inserts Taylor Potter's story between each of Mark's chapters. It's very interesting to see the different viewpoints of the two characters as they react to the same events.

Try all of Mark Roeder's books, "Gay Youth Chronicles". You'll like them all.

I'm pretty sure that Shakespeare wouldn't mind being borrowed for this one a bit. At least this time, the story line is closer to the Bard's intent of forbidden love.

What is remarkable about this book is how easily it is inserted later into the plot of "Someone Is Watching." The struggle of carrying on an affair in high school comes through. Mark Roeder captures the fear and uncertainty of ple being fenied a perfect fit by everybody around them.

I only wish it was possible to do Shakespeare one better. In some ways I still liked it more than the original.

Because I am an 18 year old highschool guy, (not a jock however) the theme and plot were very attractive for me to read. I could understand the pain and desperateness of the main-charactre, but was distracted by all the grammatical errors and repeatings of words or statements. I felt the book wasn't written the right way. It should have been more ellegant and poetical. Although I'm not the best of critizizers, I do think that the writer was a bit hurried when he wrote Ancient Prejudice.... It's not all that bad, and still can be enjoyed, but don't get carried away by the theme or/and plot. There is something good to be found. The conclusion is very interesting. I do have a suspicion. The writer may have written the book in such a rush-style on purpose, so that the story seemed more real, as Mark, the main-charactre should have written it. ....

A cannot tell you how disappointed I am in this book. The reviews were wonderful, so I gave it a shot. I have painfully read the first seven chapters but cannot read anymore...

This story just runs in circles. It appears the writer was informed by the publisher that the book was not long enough so he had to add lots of filler to get it to 181 pages. The author repeats himself over and over again.

Sorry I cannot join you in your praise with this one. I have removed other books by Mark Roeder from my wish list.

Oh boy, where to start. The theme of this novel is so earnest that one so desperately WANTS to praise it. Who wouldn't like a story where the main protagonists are great looking high school jocks? The overall plot is interesting, if a bit unbelievable. However, the devil's in the details of the telling of the story. The author's exhaustive (and exhausting) use of first person narrative is relentlessly repetitive. If you read this novel, I guarantee you will be skipping long. boring passages of contemplative description. Not to give away any of the story, but the ending is, to put it delicately, a bit of a problem.

I love a book about romance. All we seem to find these days in homosexual literature, if we can call it that, is sex. And that is deemed as erotica. Mark Roeder does well with the Romeo and Juliet plot line. He makes the characters real, and the plotline almost seemingly his own. You tend to sometimes forget that that is what it is based on.
ANCIENT PREJUDICE hurt me in so many ways. It pulled my heart almost every step of the way. I admit it was slow in the beginning, and it was repititious. But it works. It is told from the point of view of an eighteen year old who just meet his soul mate. We all felt that way when we met the first person we ever thought we wanted to be with. Mark conveys that very well. He knows how to get into the mind of...youth.
I cannot wait to pick up the rest of the YOUTH series. I highly reccomend that you do as well.

This book has all the requisite elements for a good Shakespearean tragedy. While the love story tugs at the heartstrings (pardon the cliche), the presentation could've been better. I completely agree with the previous reviewer with regard to the amount of introspection that pretty much makes up most of the book. It's overly used, and with the point of view being in the first person, it's almost like character empathy's being forced down your throat with the redundancies that constitute these reflections. I found myself being forced to skip entire passages as they tend to have that "haven't I seen this before?" quality in them. Some distance from the main character could've helped this book stir up more sympathy from this reader.

This book is darker than some of the others written by this author but the way he handels the subject matter really brought home to me what he was going for.

Mark and Taylor, as the editorial review says, aren't typically what you think of when you think of gay boy. Well to me that is what MADE them typical. I know a heck of a lot more Marks and Taylors than I do people like Jack from Will and Grace. That is why their story is so touching and terrible. Nobody is surprised when "Jack" comes out of the closet, but because nobody suspected them Mark and Taylors outing shocked the whole town. The desperation they felt combined with a truly sad ending really hooked me in this story.

If you had given a writing assignment to a group 16 year olds at the gay and lesbian youth shelter, this would be the result. By the time you get to the last chapter (which doesn't take too long given how thin the story is) you can just imagine that the semester was over and the class had to come up with an ending....and did.

I suppose it might be possible that the author actually INTENDED to make this seem like it was written by someone about 18...but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable.