This is a great story about the ups and downs of a father son relationship.
Mrs Grabill ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Life was going along just fine for Ben Campbell until he hit fourteen. That was the year his father announced that he was gay and his mother left. His dad's boyfriend moved in, and Ben started counseling -- and also misbehaving.

Now, after three years of run-ins with the law, Ben's dad has decided the only way to save Ben is to leave Spokane. At age seventeen, city boy Ben finds himself living in Rough Butte, Montana. Edward, who Ben calls Momdad, has agreed to take them back to the hometown he left when he was Ben's age. In Rough Butte, Ben is surrounded by homophobic cowboys, Edward's acid-tongued mother, Miss Mae, and an abusive neighbor with a strange young son.

Used to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, quickly ends for Ben as Miss Mae schools him in acceptable country behavior. She expects respect and hard work, and she doesn't hesitate to use her wooden spoon as a weapon to encourage it. Ben reluctantly falls in line and even finds it rewarding at times. His father and Edward seem pleased for the most part, and his improved attitude and behavior are useful in his quest to attract the attention of the beautiful girl living just four doors down the street.

There are still frustrations for Ben. Completely forgiving his father for trashing his life back in Spokane is proving harder than he expected. Rough patches between father and son keep tensions high, and to complicate matters, Ben becomes convinced that the young neighbor boy is the victim of dangerous abuse. Ben's efforts to seek justice for the boy create a whole new set of problems.

It is almost impossible to turn the pages fast enough in THE LAST EXIT TO NORMAL. Michael Harmon's protagonist is one-of-a-kind. Readers will root for him one minute and against him the next as they experience his struggle to accept what life has dealt him. Harmon has truly captured the torrent of emotions raging along that divide between boyhood and manhood. Don't miss this one! ( )

I picked this book becuase I wanted to read some teenage angst and rebellion; however, there's hardly any angst and rebellion in the book. There's about 1 or 2 lines of a boy who "hangs out with the wrong crowd." Michael Harmon needs to learn the concept of "show, don't tell" and an editor was desperately needed.

On the flip side, the idea of a gay parent struck me. Most young adult books about being homosexual deal with the youth's homosexuality, rather than the parent's. This stark difference was the only shining light in the book. ( )

Such a good book! It's full of surprises, interesting twists and turns, and defies every stereotype. Great for teens. Shocking ending.

From Google Books:
It's true: After 17-year-old Ben' s father announces he's gay and the family splits apart, Ben does everything he can to tick him off: skip school, smoke pot, skateboard nonstop, get arrested. But he never thinks he'll end up yanked out of his city life and plunked down into a small Montana town with his dad and Edward, The Boyfriend. As if it's not painful enough living in a hick town with spiked hair, a skateboard habit, and two dads, he soon realizes something's not quite right with Billy, the boy next door. He's hiding a secret about his family, and Ben is determined to uncover it and set things right. ( )

When Ben was 14, his dad announced he was gay and his mother left. Ben spiraled into drugs as he struggled to come to terms with his father's homosexuality. Now 17, he's moved with his father and "momdad" from Washington to a rural Montana town. Here Ben learns the values of hard work, helps an abused neighbor boy, falls in love, and tries to resolve his issues with his dad. ( )