Customer Reviews

My Side of the Story: A Novel

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It's exciting to see a plethora of teen-gay coming-out stories in the recent past, but unfortunately, it creates a challenge to deliver a unique story with color and energy.

Set in the U.K. (a nice change), this story can be enjoyed by all because of the universal recognition of family strife. Jazz is surrounded by a dysfunctional family. His younger sister is a bossy, self-righteous princess, his father is dully absent, and Mum runs the household sternly and imposes family counseling when Jazz least expects it. Living with them is Jazz's grandmother, who. like him, tolerates their daily lives with the knowledge that another life and place will come someday.

Jazz has a biting sense of humor, a shell starting to harden over his sensitivity, and a noticeable degree of self-hate. His sarcasm is a tool to help him deal with bullies at school and his lack of family support. You will either like Jazz's precociousness or not. While I wouldn't class it as "a la Holden Caulfield" (as Kirkus Reviews did), his voice is lasting. Some readers might have difficulty with the pounding use of casual teen narrative that sometimes sounds slangish or clichéd. It's clearly not as captivating at the voice of Noah in Bart Yates' "Leave Myself Behind."

Jazz's fag hag Al helps him circumvent myriad obstacles: the high school girls who want to date Jazz, the childhood friend of Jazz's who has become a nemesis at school, and the attentions of Mr. Fellows--a teacher whom they suspect is gay.

As Jazz and Al decide to get out of town and have other adventures, their crazy fiascos are darkened by the reality of their unfriendly world. In the end we discover that each major character we've seen in the book is not necessarily as black-and-white as we've thought, and we see a new, brighter world emerge for Jazz.

A relieving aspect of the story is that Jazz is 16. After seventh-grader Joe of James Howe's "Totally Joe," 12-year-old Billy of Graeme Aitken's "50 Ways of Saying Fabulous," and 11-year-old Andy of Joe Babcock's "The Boys and the Bees," one wonders if authors are not competing to raise the bar on who can write the youngest coming-out story. Of course, many people realize they're gay as young children, but I don't have a comfort level with the protagonist's age in some of those books. It's nice to read about a 16-year-old instead of a much younger boy.

This book will probably join those high school "banned books" (like Robert Cormier's "Chocolate War") due to the fact that in one scene Jazz gets together with an older man and has rough sex in a scene that does not spare the reader much detail.

All that said, Will Davis is a strong writer who hopefully has more tales to tell. My only strong criticism is the two-sentence author bio, which cheats us of much-wanted background on the Davis.

This novel is narrarated by a British teen who has a very unique voice and perspective indeed. And I believe his voice is very true to the nature of a teen, especially one with so many negative things going on in his life. He has quite a few laugh-out-loud quips throughout, and overall the book is very amusing. It also is sad in its own way, and you often are not quite sure when to sympathize with him and when to grab him and tell him to look at the truth of the situation! His runaway excursion with his best friend Al (a teen girl with her own share of problems at home and school) is a provocative riot. And the ending of the book is nice in that it does wrap some things up very truthfully and well but leaves others dangling a bit, as would be the case in real life. This is a great gay coming-of-age story. I love this sub-genre of gay fiction, and its very cool to get a British version of it. Speaking of which, Now if I can only figure out what "naff" means! Loved this novel!

Jarold, who prefers to known as Jaz, a troubled sixteen year old preparing to take his A level exams, tells his story as he sees it; and without the intention of winning any sympathy. He lives at home with his self-centred mother, a lawyer; his weak willed father, a chef; his pious younger sister (the Nun); and his widowed grandmother, his one ally at home.

Jaz is gay, although to others he prefers to know as "confused". Along with best friend Alice, called Al, he frequents a local gay club where one day he meets Jon, and he is smitten; but nothing for Jaz is ever simple. Matters are not helped when Al outs him at school.

Jaz speaks very much as a sixteen year old Londoner and directly to the reader in a very casual conversational manner; and the words flow with considerable ease making for a fluent and fast read. The result is an hilarious, witty, and yet appealing and moving story, and despite Jaz's stated intentions, one cannot but help be endeared to him.

I found this book to be an excellent read. I found myself completely draw into the main character (Jaz) and carried along through the story with him. The author's storytelling creates an intimate connection between the reader and the characters. The story ended far too soon for me. I found the main character's teenage British voice to be very fast and easy flowing, which is quite an accomplishment, considering that I am American and considerably older than 16.

I could relate to everything that happened in the book, Jaz's thought processes, his emotional responses and state-of-mind, and the way he interpreted the world, all capturing how a 16 year-old-boy's mind typically works. It was realistic and believable. This is a very difficult thing for an adult author to pull-off so successfully.

I highly recommend this book. I also very much look forward to his next book, which I hope is forthcoming.

The main character of the book, Jaz, has his own MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/126494485 (set-up by the author).

I love this book! I have heard people saying it is horrible because the main character is so self-obsessed, but I think that is part of the point of this book, and if anything, it just makes anything funnier. However, I wouldn't recommend this book to those easily scandalized because it is kind of graphic. I, however, loved it.

Hilarious coming of age novel. Short but sweet. Easy on the preaching, heavy on laughs