Review: Tight, sensible and brilliant...a winner!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2014
This great little short with its casual, matter-of-fact cadence and engaging sense of authenticity really impressed me. Written in first person, I found it easy to slip into the skin of its charismatic lead, Travis, an eight grader experiencing the first pangs of puberty and coming to terms with his same sex preferences. Travis’s story plays out over the course of about two years, with short captivating flashback passages which reveal his gradual understanding of his sexuality and his growing desires. A crush on a teacher surprisingly leads to an embarrassing, but magical encounter, which eventually finds Travis with a friend and then a boyfriend. As things slowly heat up between the two adolescents, safe sex becomes a topic the couple can no longer put off.I really enjoyed this piece. Travis’s journey is communicated in a lovely sparse voice that hits just the right balance to provide a winningly accurate and genuine picture of the average early gay teen years. And the story holds a terrific timeless quality, despite the inclusion of cell phones, Easy Bake ovens and Subaru’s to its narrative. The author gains major “classic” style points from me as a result, meaning I feel the story will be relevant for years to come.It’s a smart, well-written story, which will engage all readers, but especially young teens, and gay teens. I hope that it finds its way to junior high and high school libraries everywhere. At its heart this is a sweet, boy meets boy/prep for initial sex, story, but I believe the magic of this gem lies in its ability to capture the voice of the young male teen in a believable manner.Thank you Jeff Erno for taking a subject that is sometimes controversial and making it accessible and well, um—good clean fun!“Sweet Heat, First Love”