It’s tough when two best friends break up. No matter what the circumstances, it can feel like the world is ending and you teeter on the edge of uncertainty. What will you do now? How will you fill the days?
The author perfectly captures that sense of insecurity, the pain that Harrison suddenly feels when his best friend Linus tells him he’s moving to South Carolina by the end of the week. Linus has had time to come to grips with the move. But Harrison is jarred and suddenly miserable. He has a circle of friends (whom his big sister calls the Phalanx of Sad Boys). Yet none are as close as Linus is.
The boys are both gay but that has little or no bearing on their emotions for each other or the situation at hand. Whether Linus and Harrison are out to their friends and family isn’t touched upon at all and their sexuality just becomes part of the backdrop. It’s a touching reminder of just how much modern society has changed.
Their friendship is also absolutely platonic. Just because two people are of the same sexual orientation doesn’t mean they have to be attracted to each other. The fact that they’re both middle schoolers isn’t the factor that keeps them uninterested in each other, either. Linus finds himself mooning over Dario, another member of the Sad Boys, who has an equal (if equally fleeting) crush on him.
The author makes this all work, while simultaneously wrangling over the impending separation of the two boys. They both struggle to articulate what they’re feeling, to themselves, outsiders and each other. Linus has to deal with his father, who talks to him about adult matters of finances. Linus doesn’t and can’t understand this, which we sense will cause a rift between father and son. Harrison can’t talk to anybody but his big sister. She’s surprisingly empathetic and I do mean surprising. Harrison doesn’t know why she’s so kind to him and her reasons—he’s hurting and he’s her little brother—don’t convince him.
We get the boys’s personalities, their inner thoughts and conversations, muddled though they may be, in clear prose. Mr. Thomas avoids the usage of contemporary slang, which can be jangling to the nerves and quickly dates a book and makes it boring. But this is undeniably a modern story, poignant, tender and funny by turns.
A touching reminder that there are distressing sides to friendships as well as the good, this is a novel that kids should read—and will maybe bring a tear to the eyes of adults who may have lost a childhood friend.