Saints of Augustine

by P. E. Ryan, 308 pages

Sam and Charlie used to be best friends--until Sam inexplicably broke it off with Charlie and stopped talking to him. A year later, in the summer before their senior year, both boys are struggling separately to deal with their messy home lives, close-kept secrets, and ever-compounding problems. Without one another's support, they're quickly losing the battle for control over their own circumstances.

This is a touching, uplifting teen novel about the power of friendship. The boys are likeable, believable teens with individual personalities and all too realistic problems. The chapters alternate between the increasingly chaotic lives of the two boys as they avoid facing the issues pulling them under. Sam has stopped talking to most everyone, terrified he will lose the love of his friends and already broken family if he tells them he's gay, when it's his silence that's doing the most damage; and Charlie finds himself dangerously in debt to a drug dealer and having to parent his grief-stricken widower of a father without being able to deal constructively with his own sense of loss. Alone, they dig themselves in deeper and deeper while the worried reader holds out hope that if they would just fess up to who they are and what's going on in their lives, they would realize that the bonds of family and friendship, however complicated, are strong enough to see them through.

After reading and enjoying Ryan's Gemini Bites, it dawned on me that I've read very little YA fiction by male authors, very little non-fantasy YA lit, and no other YA books with a gay protagonist (I've come across any number of gay side characters, but few leads). And since Ryan writes all three of those things, and I liked GB, I just decided to read everything he's written (not too hard, as he's only got three teen novels and one adult one under his belt at the moment). Saints is definitely my favorite of his teen books (I talk about his adult one, Send Me, in another review). Ryan's frank, hopeful portrayal of regular kids with real world issues serves as a refreshing alternative to all the dark, magic-propelled plots I'm in the habit of picking up. Plus, he's inspiring me to try to read a little more outside my lazy zone, and that can only be a good thing.