Mark Kendrick

Desert Sons and its author Mark Kendrick are probably among the first examples of “not tragic” coming of age gay love story. Not so many years ago, less than 5, it was almost impossible to find a love story among gay teens without any drama happening in it, and most of the time, one or both main characters didn’t arrive to the end of the novel. Yes, I know, I’m maybe a little dramatic, but trust me, especially in the print books world the situation was not really far from what I show more described. That is the reason why I mostly stuck to ebooks, it was strange, but in the ebooks world things went different, and the happily ever after was possible.

Maybe due to my “bad” past experiences, I didn’t read sooner Desert Sons by Mark Kendrick, even if this is one of those covers that came often to my notice, and not since it is pretty; Mark Kendrick’s romance novels were among the few you could find in the Gay Fiction department in bookstores, and when you browsed the net, most often than not they came out atop of the search. Other than being mostly tragic, at the time it was also pretty common to have stories about teenagers, don’t know why, maybe since many authors had a not easy period at that same age and they really felt the matter was important.

What I immediately noticed about Desert Sons is that these two teenagers are… teenagers! They are not little men with a teenager body but an adult mind, they are two horny guys who mostly want to experience, and if in the meantime they also find love, well, even better. Truth be told, this is a better description for Scott, Ryan, poor guy, has not an easy life, and he is scared by everything, and being gay is one big secret more that he doesn’t want to reveal, I think since he is afraid that would be another reason for people to shun him. Ryan has not a steady family, he tragically lost his parents and his brother and grandmother are not enough for him to feel safe. He clings to every adult figure he meets, with or without sexual interest: that is the reason why he is friend with Frank, a married man who he sees as the only counsellor he can trust, and why he started an abusive relationship with Crawford, an older guy, 28 years old.

When things got awry, Ryan’s grandmother sends him living with his uncle Howard in the Desert. Here Ryan meets Scott, another gay teenager, even if at the beginning they don’t know about each other; Ryan thinks his entire problem derive from him being gay, and he doesn’t want to act upon it no more. But Scott has other ideas, above all since, as I said, he is gay in a place where there are no other boys like him, and when he meets Ryan it’s like the manna from the sky; it doesn’t hurt that Ryan is cute, but basically Scott wants so much a boyfriend that he would take everyone, and sincerely, at the beginning, I had the felling he didn’t like so much Ryan as a friend, but as a boyfriend he could do.

Now, joke aside, I wanted to highlight as this novel really pointed out how these two boys, 16 and 17 years old, are still young, and unsure, and with the whole life in front of them to make mistake; you cannot pretend from them to be comfortable with their own life, they need time to take they own decision, and yes, maybe even take them wrong. But, thumbs up to Mark Kendrick, at least he gave them the chance to do that, and also to learn from their mistake.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0595191304/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

Scott is fairly happy with his life. He works in his family's restaurant, has a creative outlet working the sound panel for a local band and is looking forward to his senior year of high school. His only problematic issues are that his father is forcing him into a business degree when he graduates and leaving his track team to put all his efforts into his music. The fact that he is gay and has actually "come out" to a few select members of his family doesn't really bother him, except for the show more fact that he knows of no one else that leans in that direction. When Ryan, the nephew of the local business man, comes to live in his home town Scott isn't quite sure what to make of him. He's very cute, but Scott instinctively knows that what Ryan appears to be is a complete facade. When Scott is forced to take Ryan under his wing, he's torn between like and dislike of Ryan's attitude and troublesome ways.

When Ryan arrives in the sunny, arid Yucca Valley he's not sure what to make of it. After being kicked out of his grandmother's house to live with his uncle due to his troublesome attitude, the last thing Ryan ever expected was to find someone like Scott. But, will Scott still be his friend when he finds out what secrets Ryan is hiding about his past?

Although this story seems to be a pretty realistic contemporary portrayal of how teens, particularly gay teens in a relationship, would act, I wouldn't really recommend it as a young adult book due to the amount of graphically described intimacies. Outside of that, I personally did find the book to be a very interesting coming of age type story. It is impossible not to feel sympathetic towards Ryan and his issues, most especially the abuse suffered at the hands of a man he trusted and the death of his parents. Scott's much lighter disposition is a perfect foil for Ryan's dark attitude and his confusion in the face of Ryan's increasing personal epiphanies is understandable. I thought the story was an insightful and believable exploration into issues not frequently addressed in contemporary literature. show less

As with Desert Sons I thought that this book had a lot of strong interesting points along with a few downfalls. Starting with the downfalls I guess the biggest one for me would have to be the over-narrative backgrounds for the secondary characters. Although it is nice to know their motivations, sometimes it was just a bit too much. Also, some of the narrative was...well...a little too narrative, especially at the beginning of the book. What is that saying, "show don't tell"? Another, much show more smaller drawback was that there were a few grammatical errors where a little more editing would have been useful, but this wasn't horribly invasive to the reading.

However, once again like Desert Sons, the further you get into the story, the smoother everything seems to go. There were parts of the story that made me want to cringe, not in a bad way, but because of what was going on and because I was that into the story.

Also, I do like both the characters of Scott and Ryan. Both of them have their faults and their strengths. Many of the secondary characters were interesting in their own way and I especially liked the scene between Scott and his best friend, Doug, in the bleachers. I did feel that Preston kind of got lost in the dust at the end of the story and that there might have been one last scene missing that he could have been in to finish it off.

The climactic scene at the end of the story was certainly worth the reading of the book. It was very intense and I felt quite anxious for the characters. That particular part was very well told and worth a star all on its own.

Once again with this sequel I think this author has given us a very down to earth and realistic look at contemporary gay issues and teenagers, although not necessarily what I would consider young adult literature due to graphic content. Overall a very good read which will most likely retain a spot on my "keeper" shelf. show less

Maybe since the boys are grown and so, in a way, the are more engaging, maybe since I like my romance, and in this sequel to Desert Sons there is plenty of it, I think I liked even more Into This World We’re Thrown than its prequel.

Ryan and Scott are boyfriends and as such they have sworn to each other to come clean with their respective families; Ryan’s revelation goes pretty smoothly, and instead Scott has to face some more issue. Then there is the problem that Scott is still in high show more school, and that he fears to come out at school. Most of the first part of the book is focused so much on Scott that I was almost thinking Ryan was a supporting character in this second novel; but then, Ryan’s grandmother’s death brings forward all Ryan’s fears, the same fears that had him trying to commit suicide more than one time, the same fears that had his grandmother exiling him in Yucca Valley.

I liked that, even if it was not a bed of roses for these two guys, their issues were, more or less, ordinary issues of teenager boys. True, Ryan is depressed, but how many boys are the same at that age? Maybe, that depression is not read in the right way, and can escalate to something worse, for this reason I liked the author gave Ryan the chance to be followed by a good doctor, someone who was able to understand a boy and his issue.

Than there is Scott, sometime behaving like he was older than his age, but in the end being a young man, with the sexual impulses of a teenager. Scott is in love with Ryan, and he understands Ryan’s issues, but he is not a saint, and when the chance to have some relief presents itself on a gold plate… well he is not able to deny it to himself.

But Ryan and Scott are in love, and mostly they have the support of who loves them; not all the teenager can say the same, and so these two have plenty of chances to an happily ever after, and they will be able to catch it.

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