Review: Jumbo by Todd Young
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 13, 2012
I picked up 'Jumbo' on a whim after seeing Young's other books but never quite deciding to 1-click and read one. Once I started on this one, I was pretty quickly sucked in and finished it over the course of a Saturday.While the book centers on Mitchell and his concerns over his equipment size, he has a lot of traumatic experiences thrown at him in an extremely short period of time.  It was almost too much at times but it did create a good foundation for a coming of age/m/m romance story.  I felt for the kid and I really wanted to shake some sense into his father who was diving head first into his own mid-life crisis.  Mitchell was dealing with coming out issues and fears of being outed, an abusive coach, his infatuation with this best friend, his family, girls, ... the list goes on .... He sometimes reacted in a fairly adult manner and sometimes as a small child so to that degree, he was believable as an 18yo boy.On the downside, there was so much going on with him that when the book ended, if didn't feel like the story was finished.  Some of the major plot points had resolved themselves, but others were still left open.  To some degree, that's real life and we don't get a Happily Ever After but I just wanted to know that Mitchell was going to be OK.Early on, I found myself googling for information around under-endowed men and their concerns and the various non-surgical and surgical methods used to try and correct their size.  It was definitely a learning experience and not something I would normally do when reading a book.  I liked Mitchell as a character enough that I wanted to know more about this issue that was consuming him.Now that I've read one of Young's novel, he's on my list of authors to keep an eye on.  I'll definitely read more of his books.Pick up a copy, it's worth a read.