Review: A rare five-star from me: an exceptional YA book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 8, 2012
This book was recommended to me on the AfterElton.com gay book forum. I resisted, but finally let him talk me into it.I a so glad I did. I've read a great many YA books with central characters who were gay. I've never read one quite like this. It is not grand, but it is almost magical in its simple, poignant, and moving narrative.The story of this book is, ultimately, the distant aftermath of a series of horrific acts of violence, although that truth is only gradually unveiled to the reader.  At first, we just have a sixteen-year old boy in a shoddy southwestern town who seems to have been abandoned by his father. Oh, and he's mute. The child protective services take him to his grandmother's house on the Nettlebush Indian reservation. There, Skylar St. Clair reestablishes contact with the people and the customs of his tribe - the Shoshone - and with him we learn the truth behind the scars on his throat and the mystery of his father's disappearance.And then there's Rafael. Skylar's unlikely friendship with this dark, brooding boy, becomes the golden thread woven through the dark and complex tapestry of the Nettlebush saga. It is awkward in a very believable teenage way; it is romantic in a way that will touch all but the stoniest of hearts. In a world full of hate, I am always drawn to stories in which the power of love is manifest. All you need to know is that "Gives Light" is Raphael's family name to know that love will play a major role here.