Rainbow Boys: 08/08/10

Last year when Amazon temporarily delisted books with LGBT themes for being "adult material" I bought up a bunch of the delisted books (from Powell's). One of those books was Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez.

Rainbow Boys was Sanchez's debut novel. It's also the start of a trilogy. The other two books are Rainbow High and Rainbow Road. I haven't read the other two and I'm debating whether or not I will.

The book is told from three different male points of view: Jason, a jock with a girlfriend who realizes he might be bi; Kyle who looks straight but isn't and isn't sure he wants to tell anyone; and Nelson who is out to the whole world but can't muster the guts to tell the boy he's crushing on how he feels. Each boy has a unique voice and an interesting personality.

Unfortunately their stories are bogged down with a combination of family drama and a Jack Webb style of including information about helpful groups for teens in similar situations. I'm not against showing how hard it can be for LGBT teens. Nor am I against including real life resources in fiction. But there needs to be a balance and Rainbow Boys doesn't have that balance until near the end.

A book that covers the same topics but does a better job of balancing issues with plot is In Mike We Trust by P. E. Ryan (review coming).

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