The author does a fantastic job of bringing the truth of gay lifestyle out in this novel. One of the critics of the book is quoted as saying "Joe Babcock effortlessly captures a voice rarely heard."—JT LeRoy. This is a true statement. There comes an understanding in that being Gay isn't so cut and dry as the media, as Christian critics and psychologists like to make it. It wipes the myth that being Gay is a choice, pointing out that so many gay people actually pray to God to change them, and have a very hard time accepting the very fact they are gay. This book eliminates predisposed conceptions of what being Gay is. There is no set stereotype to being gay, and everyone, gay or straight, is individually a person of their own, each deserving of respect, love and acceptance.
The only thing that I didn't care for about this novel was how the end wrapped up a bit too neatly and too quickly. It goes along and then suddenly everything happens at once, and before you know it, the end is there and all wrapped up nice and neatly, with a neat happy ending. To me that is the most unrealistic part of it. For many, there wouldn't have been such a happy ending, and it almost felt like the author came to a point where he decided it was time to wrap up the novel, and did so in a bit of a hurry.
Overall I recommend this book especially if you are open-minded, accepting and open-hearted. If you are homophobic or anti-gay, do not even bother, because you just won't get it.
I will be looking to read more from Joe Babcock, who originally self published The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers, and won the Best Self-Published Novel award in 2002.
Edited: PC
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