Trapped in a suburban wasteland the summer before his first year in college, closeted indie loser Dade Hamilton is stuck in the middle of his parents’ disintegrating marriage and wastes his time pining after his girlfriend-ed hook-up–buddy Pablo. That is, until he spots dreamy, drug-dealing Alex Kincaid at a party, and the summer explodes into a lusty haze of blazing romance, pot smoke and danger. Burd breathes new life into the old coming-out formula with a blast of 21st-century testosterone-injected anger, heaps of longing and insecurity and even some violence. His carefully drawn characterizations and raw tone make the drama of Dade’s life feel urgent and very real. The allure of the illicit, decay and regret are only a few of the irresistibly dangerous themes woven into the mix, and readers will watch in rapt fascination and dread as Alex draws a willing Dade into his dark world. The results of their pairing aren’t exactly pretty, but they’re honest. One of the best in a new generation of LGBTQ novels, it can stand alongside Peter Cameron’s and Brian Sloan’s. (Fiction. YA)
