Freak Show: 01/11/15

Freak Show by James St. James is about a gay teenager with a unique fashion sense, being relocated from a liberal eastern seaboard school to a hyper-conservative prep-school in Florida.

Billy Bloom, the protagonist, narrates in a first person, stream of consciousness that's similar to many a tween or YA book featuring a young woman looking for first love and greater freedom from her over protective or overly weird parents.

Bill though, being (or trying to be) as out and proud as as he is, where he is, runs the threat of personal harm that usually doesn't appear in the female heterosexual YA books (even though that danger does exist in real life). Of the ones I've read, Behaving Like Adults by Anna Maxted, albeit an adult book, comes closet to being an equivalent.

That said, I found the tone somewhat jarring. It never really settled on either being a comedy or a drama. Nor did it balance the two swings of the pendulum to be a dramady.

Three stars

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