Review: A second wonderful YA novel with an LGBT theme - but very different.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2013
The author is a friend - full disclosure. Here is some of what I wrote to him about this book:What a great title, for starters. Justin is the opposite - almost paralyzed by fear. His defensive attitude has virtually cut him off from every good possibility as well as protecting him. It's also eliminated his ability to see himself as other than in negative terms. His mom isn't warm (not unkind, but too tired and too resigned to realize this herself) and his father is both self-centered and absent. He has no one to point out to him what's good about him (and even if your opinions as parents don't count, your kids do need to hear you say nice things about them!). Justin thinks he's got it all figured out - but he's only dug himself into a hole with no way out and a guarantee of loneliness. Other than tall and thin, we don't really ever get a sense of what Justin looks like - except, eventually, the sense that he must be attractive - through the eyes of people who care about him. I liked that detail, because it lets the reader plug himself in as Justin, to identify with this boy who has no sense of self-worth.Then Liam pops in - the scary, skin-head looking boy who smokes weed and gives off all the signs of being parental "bad news." I loved the little dance they do at first - Justin rejecting his overtures out of fear, then relenting when he sees the hurt he causes Liam. That little moment of trust - of risk, of setting aside fear for the possibility of something else. It was painful to feel Justin's assumption that he could never have a friend, and then his happiness at the emergence of this friendship. It proves that both Justin and Liam are good guys in very few words. It also demonstrates Liam's fearlessness and vulnerability, as well as suggests to Justin, for the first time, that his fears may be holding him back, preventing happiness.The sadness you warned me about is surely all-pervasive. I could never forget the dark shadow hovering over the story, and think that's a good thing. The reader is kept in a constant state of wondering if it is going to turn out badly or not. It keeps a thread of anxiety in your mind. Liam becomes Justin's defense system, giving Justin the courage to take risks. Liam really transformed Justin, and I've never quite read a YA book that did that in the way you do in "Fearless."'I loved your earlier "Exiled to Iowa," but its tone, its protagonist, its intention are so different. That showed me a teenage boy who was the way I'd wished I'd been -sassy, smart, amusing (OK, I was a little that way); but "Fearless" really tapped into my primal teenage memories of insecurity, self-doubt, fear. I never had a Liam, but I did have a series of friends who helped me - we really helped each other - discover our own value as we worked our way through boarding school.So, have I convinced you? This is as good as any YA book I've read. I am proud of you, and envious of you. Maybe someday I'll write something this good.