THE WAITING TREE

Being gay in a small Southern town is never easy; it's harder still when everyone knows and no one approves.

Seventeen-year-old Simon Peters and his boyfriend Stephen Lévesque were discovered having sex by Stephen's father a month or so after Simon's parents died in a car accident. Stephen was sent away to a Christian re-education camp by his evangelical parents, and Simon dropped out of school and got a job at the Stop ’n Save megastore. He spends his free time taking care of his mute, autistic twin brother, Jude, since their older brothers, intolerant Paul and carefree Luke, aren't much help. (In this church-centered town, almost everyone has an apostolic moniker.) Everyone urges Simon to find a girlfriend, but he pines for Stephen and knows the two of them are meant to be. Complications abound, and just when things seem to level out, a crisis threatens to derail everything. Moynihan's debut is a melodrama worthy of a Hallmark Hall of Fame Pride Month production. The narrative’s interesting setup is compromised by ineffectual bullies, an often callous narrator (except where his brother Jude is concerned), and stock characters and events. Only for readers who have exhausted everything else in the LGBT section; hope for better from Moynihan and fledgling publisher Amazon. (Fiction. 14 & up)