I'm just gonna put it out there - this book. is. super. inspring. honestly, reading it just made me think about how society looks at different people, in the past and now. and how the word "hate" is so commonly and wrongly used. and how a chance meeting could change anyone's life, for better or worse. and yeah. i'll get onto it.
Btw it's a true story.
This story's about a 17-year old, violent misfit, mohawk wearing guy named Doug; and Jason, a gay, outcasted by his own religious family. it's told in two different perspectives - you would never think that they would've met the way they did.
And so here are their individual stories :
Doug grew up in an extremely racist family after his brother got shot by an African-American, and spent his teenage years hardly sober, getting high and beating up anyone who looked at him the wrong way. but before all his irresponsible acts, he was just a normal-ish kid who heard about The Ramones and decided to become a punk. all that getting drunk and high was alright at first, until he became a skinhead and started hanging out with Nazis, then it just got disturbing. i won't mention some of the things that happened with him, since it might be kinda offensive.
Jason, on the other hand, was just a boy who grew up in a religious family and embraced his sexuality. he one day decided to come out to his family, but that went horribly, horribly wrong. his mother went all psychotic on him, his father didn't even want to look at him, his brother decided he wasn't Jason's brother anymore and, well .. he got kicked out of his house, just because he was gay. i cried so much at that :/ he then had to live on the streets and turn to prostitution to have food and clothing.
Soo yeah they don't meet in the nicest way. you'll have to read it to know how it happened ~
I think this book was SO inspiring and heartbreaking, since i never even thought that these kinds of things could happen to people, shaping them to be the way they are. and that discrimination, racial prejudice and religious views could lead to such horrible things. i found this story to be really heartwrenching, because i think that racism and homophobia are just .. appaling really. and it made me feel so sorry for both the characters in this book. although i grew to hate Doug ._.
And yeah this is based on a true story, mostly - about Matthew Boger and Timothy Zaal. pretty much most of the middle parts are fictional, but their chance meeting is definitely true.
I don't know what else to say about this book, apart from that it's just so eye opening and riveting that it just makes you think about all the issues that this book offers you. there's also this one part near the end of the book that just made me cry so much, knowing that those kinds of things have really happened before .. (a gay man got kidnapped by two other guys thinking that they were gay too, but ended up being murdered by them just because they're homophobes) ...
I'd give this a 8.5/1O, and i'd recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting read, and something to really think about. i loved it.
Sounds like a very powerful book, Maria. I can see that it has really affected you and made you think about a lot of issues. Any author that can make a reader cry must be doing something right! As always, your comments are thoughtful and perceptive. I hope someone else is inspired to read this book from your review.
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