Customer Reviews

The Straight Road to Kylie

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was alerted to the existence of this book from a notice the author put up on SAY HEY, the invaluable UK-based Kylie fan site and the best resource for all things Kylie that I know of. Quickly I used my Amazon Prime to speed a copy to my door. I don't know Nico Medina, but I congratulate him on having written a speedy, often funny and sometimes rueful look at one American teenager and the strange byways he takes trying to complete what he calls his "mild obsession" with our mutual idol, Australian-born pop princess Kylie Minogue, whose 39th birthday we celebrate this week.

Jonathan is a well-adjusted high school senior living in Winter Park, an exclusive district of Orlando, in Florida, a community so privileged that a street sign advising "Drive with Extraordinary Care," has been altered, Jonathan informs us wryly, so that you can't read the final "e" in "care." His best buds are three upper-middle class girls with boy problems, including his very best friend Joanna, a pretty girl who just can't seem to get lucky with boys. Jonathan is kind of the pet of these girls, who depend on him to be the sounding board to their problems and to DJ for them and to help them learn the latest dances. He's a sparkplug in the community, and one of the few "out" teens at school, boy or girl.

All of the titles of Medina's chapters are the names of Kylie's songs, and he uses them brilliantly! He missed "Tightrope," which would have been a good one considering that Jonathan winds up walking a tightrope of sexual confusion and lack of self-esteem, but maybe he can write a sequel, this book deserves one.

At Joanna's 18th birthday party, Jonathan gets swacked and winds up losing his virginity at last, and not to a guy but to a girl! One of his second tier of girlfriends, Alex Becker. Once the word gets out that Jon can perform with a girl, he becomes to target of superwealthy Laura Schulberg, who like Satan tempts him with promises of great riches and opportunity. For example, if he agrees to pose as her boyfriend at school, she will reward him with a trip to London to see Kylie in concert! But is seeing Kylie worth going back into the closet at age 18? That's Jonathan's dilemma.

I didn't understand why Jonathan is so averse to meeting guys through online services or whatever. Over and over again he frowns on on-line hookups as though they were against his code of behavior, which otherwise is not all that prescriptive. Finally I figured out that Medina had to make Jonathan hard up for guys otherwise he might never have tumbled into bed with Alex Becker no matter how drunk they were. So his aversion to online dating was just part of the plot, and a pretty contrived one at that. And also, how believable is it that a, Laura would want Jonathan as a boyfriend, or that b, all of Winter Park would suddenly agree that he has gone straight? But these are minor flaws. I commend Nico Medina for having written a nailbiter about what one boy will do to achieve his goal, and the regrets he piles up after himself like dirty laundry. And also for having written a book that communicates some of Kylie's own joie de vivre and hidden sadness, like a glass of tears heaped to the brim and perfectly still, a frozen river. Jonathan is a great addition to the gallery of great American teens mouthing off, a Holden Caulfield for our time and place.

PS, Nico Medina, if you come to San Francisco, look me up!

Just wanted to drop a line and say that this is a cute book that any gay guy in the US who is obsessed with Kylie Minogue will enjoy. It is like we could all by Jonathan. The book is a fast easy read with plenty of kylie, madonna, and garbage references to name a few. The book cost nearly nothing and this christmas i am sending copies out as gifts. Check it out. Not sure why someone listed it as gay erotica, because it is not. There is just a couple of meantions of pot smoking.

Life is fabulous for Jonathan Parish.

He's seventeen, out and proud, and ready to party through senior year with his posse of best girlfriends. But the year starts off with the wrong kind of bang when Jonathan -- in an inebriated lapse of judgment -- sleeps with a friend of his...a girl friend!

When word gets around that hot-but-previously-unavailable Jonathan might be on the market, the school's It girl approaches him with a proposal: pretend to be her boyfriend, and achieve popularity like he's never known. But popularity isn't what Jonathan wants. And suddenly, going back into the closet becomes Jonathan's only way to get what he's after -- a trip to see Kylie Minogue.

(Summary from Amazon)

The Straight Road to Kylie is one of the most recent and best gay teen books I've read. Everything about it seemed to capture and represent Jonathan's life perfectly and made it seem real. To be honest, I couldn't relate to the characters in many ways because I'm not eighteen or gay and I definitely don't host parties and rarely even go to them but as I was reading this, I felt like I was there, partying with Jonathan and his friends. The prose and characterizations make it seem that real.

I must say that after reading this a few of my opinions have changed, including those on pop goddess, Kylie Minogue, who I now worship.

Jonathan Parish is an out gay boy from Winter Park. That is, untill be met an offer he couldn't refuse. What is the price for jumping back in the closet these days you say? A trip to see Kylie of course!

While again pretending to be straight, Jonathan rediscovers who he is and what is truly important to him. The author has done a wonderful job of entwining such a serious matter with light-hearted humour.

Having read this a second time and loving it as much as the first I decided to review it so others can "Come Into My World" and enjoy it too.

Ok, so yes- I am a HUGE Kylie Minogue fan, and searching for Kylie stuff is what prompted my discovery of this book. Luckily!

Major Kylie fan or not, this book is a great read. Nico Medina vividly creates a wild, fun, exciting, emotional, and incredibly realistic senior year for a close group of high school senior friends dealing with school, friendships, crushes, and all the excitements involved therein.

Medina does an excellent job of keeping the story flowing naturally and with plenty of exciting, oh-my-god-what-is-going-to-happen moments!

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone looking to enjoy a comical, well-written, fast-paced book. And, on top of that you perchance like Kylie Minogue?? You will LOVE your time spent reading this book- guaranteed! ;)

I picked this book up after my parents sent me an article from the newspaper. As a former student of the nonfictional Winter Park High School, I was interested to see what a fellow schoolmate would come up with.

While the characters were shallow, the storyline held the book together. The writing style, however, left a lot to be desired. The book does more telling then showing. The characters are fun, but the excessive use of landmarks were a little bit distracting. I knew exactly which Target, Barnes & Noble, and Chick-fil-a they were at in the story. Homecoming at Universal's Citywalk was a reality. The use of all of these names seemed gratuitous, since they added nothing more to the story than advertising.

The end ties together neatly, like the happy-teen movies they made fun of at points in the book.

To sum up: weak writing, fun story.

Jonathan Parish, the ALL OUT Kylie Minogue lover, has done the unexpected. He slept with a girl. Okay, that may seem normal to most of us, but not for Jonathan--since he is gay and everyone knows it. This wouldn't have happened if Joanna's mother hadn't canceled their plans, then Jonathan and Joanna wouldn't have had to come up with a birthday party, which meant that they wouldn't have had to invite their friends, including Alex (not as in Alexander but as in Alexandra), which wouldn't have led to Jonathan sleeping with Alex. Of course, Jonathan had a choice to say no to Alex, but he was just too drunk and Alex just persuaded him in the right way.

After "that night" happened, Jonathan believed that the whole ordeal was over, that is until he discovered that the whole school found out about it. Now all the girls seem to be looking at Jonathan in a new light. Everyone, including the richest and the most popular girl in school, and also his math buddy, Laura Schulberg. But Laura has bigger plans for the both of them; if Jonathan becomes Laura's boyfriend, not only would she keep her own social status but Jonathan would become popular, too. At first Jonathan isn't buying it, until Laura bribes him with tickets to go see Kylie Minogue. How can he say no to that?

Before he knows it, Jonathan finds himself back in the closet, trying to keep up the charade as being Laura's boyfriend. Which isn't so hard, until Jonathan's friends begin to turn their back on him and he then finds the guy of his dreams. Can Jonathan survive being straight just to see his idol?

THE STRAIGHT ROAD TO KYLIE is NOT funny but is HILARIOUS. The journey that Nico Medina writes is one of a high school kid, trying to find out who he really is, and that is what makes THE STRAIGHT ROAD TO KYLIE one of the greatest books that I have ever read. The obstacles that Jonathan faces will make you laugh out loud. Not only that, but the problems that he faces shows us all how the lives of teens are so hectic and full of so much drama. Lets just hope that Jonathan's adventures don't end here, and that the road continues.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen

So, Jonathan Parish is a gay boy, out and proud. He plans a party with his friends, drinks way too much, and loses his virginity to a girl named Alex. (As in alexis.) This news travels fast in the apparently nonfictional Winter Parks High. And it travels to the most popular girl on campus. Now she wants to date him, but he says yes to one condition; on spring break, she takes him to see his favorite Idol, Kylie minogue. (she's real too, in case you haven't heard of her.) Now that everyone thinks Jonathan is straight, he's dating the most popular girl in school, his friends won't hang out with him because their halloween plans are ruined and he needs to keep the secret safe!

I liked the book personally. It has a very unique writing style that would work better as an audiobook. It is written like a gay high-schooler's quote, which will make teens (like myself) love the book, but older people will have a hard time understanding it due to slang. Nico Medina has a lot of fun landscaping Orlando to his memories, and it shows. almost everywhere the cast goes is labeled with a well-known name. (Borders, target, disney world and pac-sun to name a few.) This gets slightly annoying near the end when it's been mentioned quite a bit.

It's a great debut book, but his next book might not be as good if it has the same falters. If you want a book not about gay people, check out thee author's newest book, Fat Hoochie Prom Queen.

Writing- Very modern, but it'll probably be laughes at in 20 years
Cast- The cast is fun, but steriotypical. Gets better halfway through the book when everyone starts to flesh out.

This is a truly awful book that fails on every level. I bought it after reading the description and believing the writer would have a good knowledge of Kylie Minogue. And that his Kylie fandom would come across strongly throughout the book. But this is not the case. What this writer knows about Kylie Minogue could be written on the back of a postage stamp in one inch letters.

The writing style is empty, the characters are shallow and unlikeable - the lead character is someone you already dislike after about 10 pages. These characters and the world they inhabit have no redeeming features. The world can do without them with no great loss.

When you write a book about a character's obsession with Kylie Minogue, you need to do more than mention her in passing - you need to convey that passion, obsession throughout the pages of the book. Kylie is an aside in this book - just one of many, many, many shallow interests of the shallow lead character.

I do not rate this book with even 1 star. I had to click on a star to complete this review. But the book is truly awful and the writer should be ashamed.