#Review of Golden Boy by @abigailsbrain

“A dramatic, thoroughgoing investigation of the complexities of sexuality and gender.…A warmly human coming-of-age story…emotionally engaging, and genuinely unforgettable” (Booklist, starred review).
Max Walker is a golden boy. Attractive, intelligent, and athletic, he’s the perfect son, the perfect friend, and the perfect crush for the girls in his school. He’s even really nice to his little brother. Karen, Max’s mother, is determined to maintain the façade of effortless excellence she has constructed through the years, but now that the boys are getting older, she worries that the façade might soon begin to crumble. Adding to the tension, her husband Steve has chosen this moment to stand for election to Parliament. The spotlight of the media is about to encircle their lives.

The Walkers are hiding something, you see. Max is special. Max is different. Max is intersex. When an enigmatic childhood friend named Hunter steps out of his past and abuses his trust in the worst possible way, Max is forced to consider the nature of his well-kept secret. Why won’t his parents talk about it? What else are they hiding from Max about his condition and from each other? The deeper Max goes, the more questions emerge about where it all leaves him and what his future holds, especially now that he’s starting to fall head over heels for someone for the first time in his life. Will his friends accept him if he is no longer the Golden Boy? Will anyone ever want him—desire him—once they know? And the biggest one of all, the question he has to look inside himself to answer: Who is Max Walker, really?

Written by twenty-six-year-old rising star Abigail Tarttelin, Golden Boy is a novel you’ll read in one sitting but will never forget; at once a riveting tale of a family in crisis, a fascinating exploration of identity, and a coming-of-age story like no other.

 About the Author

I'm Abby. I love Buffy The Vampire Slayer and I just dog gone don't like the gender binary.

I'm the author of Golden Boy about lovely, beautiful, blonde, intersex teen, Max Walker. Excited to say that Golden Boy has won a 2014 American Library Association ALEX Award for Best Adult Books For Teen Readers and is also shortlisted for a LAMBDA award for debut LGBT fiction! In 2013, I was also thrilled to be named the only author in London, England's "25 Under 25" most powerful people in Britain. I now stand in doorways shouting at people 'You Shall Not Pass' to see if they will cower at my wizardry. It doesn't (often) work.

When I see those pictures on Facebook that ask you.  What is a book that has changed your life.  This will forever be my go to book to share.  This book was just so life changing.  This book WILL make you cry! So you have been warned. This book was an emotional ride that I kept wanting to skip ahead and read the ending. But, I fought myself as I didn't want to ruin it.

Although this book took me for a spin. It starts out very shockingly with a Rape.  But, if you can get past that you will so love this book.

And don't let this cover fool you.  You have to read this!  I almost didn't grab it and then decided that I had to. haha.  The subject mater in this book is very dark.  The issues of being intersex is a hard one but the author did a wonderful job of telling it like it is and being honest.

At times I felt like I wanted to jump into the book and just give Max a big hug and tell him that it would all be ok.

This is another book with multi POVs but again this is one of the rare ones that it works out and brings so much more to the story.

Dont let this one slip through your fingers!

This is deff one that I would love a signed copy of!

 Go Into This One Knowing 

Gender Issues, Rape, Feels

"All opinions are 100% honest and my own." 

2014 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST 

WINNER OF THE 2014 ALEX AWARD 

BOOKLIST TOP 10 FIRST NOVEL OF 2013 

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2013 

  Disclaimer: Thanks to Goodreads and Amazon for the book cover, about the book, and author information.

Posted in: Giveaway, Review, Simon & Schuster, Young Adult