Age: Young Adult
Genre: Fiction, Gay and Lesbian
Teens Andy
and his twin sister, Andrea, live with their parents in a rural town where not
much happens. They fill their time going to school and playing soccer. As
college application time approaches, the twins are trying to decide where to go
to school because, at least in Andrea’s mind, they will stay together no matter
what. But Andy is feeling unfulfilled in life: no girl keeps his interest for
long and he’s not sure he wants to play soccer after high school. However, life
suddenly changes when a new boy, Ryder, moves into town. Andy starts to have
unrecognizable feelings for Ryder and before he knows it, Andy is in over his
head. Though he
is happy to be with Ryder, he lives in constant fear of others finding out
their secret. He can’t even tell his twin, but everyone is bound to find out at
some point.
The love
story in Andy Squared seems plausible enough and the characters feel realistic,
but the story itself moves pretty slowly. It wasn’t exactly a page-turner as
there was nothing pushing the story forward other than Andy’s self-discovery.
The author needed to add some sort of external conflict to keep the plot
interesting. I found I wasn’t all that interested in what was going to happen
to the characters, and the only reason I kept reading the book was because I
rarely stop reading a book I’ve started. So Andy Squared wasn’t terrible, just
sort of boring. However, it may appeal to young gay readers looking to find
someone like themselves portrayed in literature.
Bibliographic
Information:
Lavoie,
Jennifer. Andy Squared. Valley Falls, NY: Bold Strokes Books, 2012.
