Contemporary . M/F . Mia Kerick . Young Adult

All Boy by Mia Kerick

On July 16, 2019 by Jaye

All Boy by Mia Kerick

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Blurb

Seventeen-year-old Callie Canter knows all about screwing up—and being screwed over. After her so-called boyfriend publicly humiliated her senior year, taking a fifth year of high school at Beaufort Hills Academy is her second chance to leave behind a painful past. But her need for social acceptance follows, and going along with the in-crowd is the difference between survival and becoming a target. Staying off the radar is top priority. So, falling for an outsider is the last thing on Callie’s “to-do” list. Too bad her heart didn’t get the memo.

With his strict, religious upbringing and former identity far away in Florida, Jayden Morrissey can finally be true to himself at Beaufort Hills Academy. But life as a trans man means keeping secrets, and keeping secrets means not getting too close to anyone. If he can just get through his fifth year unnoticed, maybe a future living as the person he was born to be is possible. Yet love is love, and when you fall hard enough, intentions crumble, plans detour, and secrets are revealed.

From multi-award-winning author Mia Kerick, comes a powerful, timely, and life-changing novel, which follows two teenagers nursing broken hearts and seeking acceptance, and who together realize running away isn’t always the answer.

Links

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44152380-all-boy?ac=1&from_search=true

Purchase:

Amazon: https://books2read.com/u/3GxyZP?store=amazon

Review

I received a review copy from Xpresso Book Tours, and I honestly jumped at the chance to get my hands on a book featuring a trans character that didn’t fetishize trans people.  I was a little hesitant to read another YA book, because high school was awful enough the first time and I don’t want to relive it, but the subject is incredibly important especially for this age group and I definitely wanted to read more books featuring trans characters.

I wasn’t surprised to find Beaufort Hills Academy to be equally as terrible a microcosm of the world as my own high school was many years ago, just smaller, richer, and whiter.  The two main characters have their reasons for trying not to engage more than they have to with the rest of the student body.  Callie was grievously traumatized at her prior school.  Jayden is trans and the dorms don’t offer him enough privacy. 

They meet in class and are able to draw each other out, just a bit.  It’s enough to improve both of their lives at Beaufort, but especially Callie’s.  Then something terrible happens, and Callie fails Jayden in an exceptionally terrible way.  (The way may be triggering to some readers; more on this below.)

This is a romance.  There is a happy ending.  The dark moment, however, is super dark.

Let’s unpack some of this, because there’s a lot going on in this book and readers should be aware of it. 

First of all, the trauma Callie endured at the hands of her ex-boyfriend and the people at her former school was severe.  Have people endured worse?  Sure.  Does that minimize what was done to Callie?  Nope.  What happened to her colors every aspect of her life now.  While she’s been through counseling and it has helped her to some extent, it plays a significant role in how she responds to events around her. 

On the one hand, Callie’s trauma makes her somewhat more self-aware than I’d expect from the average high school girl.  (She’s definitely more self-aware in many cases than I was.)  That said, it’s also given her a distinct sense of paranoia and with good reason. 

Let me reiterate.  Callie’s paranoia is a perfectly normal, understandable, and almost healthy response to what was done to her. 

Why do I bring this up? 

I mentioned earlier that Callie fails Jayden in a terrible, awful, no-good way during the dark moment.  And it’s bad, and I was pretty disappointed in Callie in that moment.  Where I feel the narrative fails Callie, though, is in not making it clear enough that part of the reason Callie fails Jayden in the way she does is as a result of the way she was traumatized the previous year.

I can’t go into it without giving spoilers.  But her failure with Jayden happened immediately after a scene that had her fears amped up to eleven.  She still should have done better by Jayden, but I feel like there wasn’t enough of a light shined on how Callie’s past affected her responses. 

Another thing that had me raising an eyebrow was Callie’s naiveté.  The story references current events and Trump voters.  How is it possible that Callie doesn’t know what transgender means?  It’s 2019.  I was in high school in 1992 and while we might have had a lot of foolish ideas, we at least had a vague idea of what the word meant.  That part boggled my mind, and I am side-eyeing the hell out of Callie’s mom for letting her out of the house at her age with such a void in her head.

I liked Callie, don’t get me wrong.  She was stronger than a lot of people twice her age, and one of the hallmarks of that strength was knowing she had done something terrible.  She made the choice to make things right in whatever way she could.

Jayden was an amazing character, almost too good to believe honestly.  I loved him, I loved every moment of his portrayal, and part of what I loved was his masculinity.  He was every inch a man, and every inch a proper romance hero too. 

Definitely pick this one up.  It’s intense, don’t get me wrong.  I wouldn’t call it a “light” read.  It’s a worthwhile read, though, and that’s just as good.

Author Bio

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—one in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son, heading off to college. (Yes, the nest is finally empty.) She has published more than twenty books of LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing scholarship essays. Her husband of twenty-five years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it’s a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled people in complex relationships. She has a great affinity for the tortured hero in literature, and as a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of tortured heroes and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine, and have won Rainbow Awards for Best Transgender Contemporary Romance and Best YA Lesbian Fiction, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly Award for Young Adult e-book Fiction, among other awards.

Mia Kerick is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology. Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com or visit at www.miakerickya.com to see what is going on in Mia’s world.

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