Not sure how to rate this book. I have to think about it.
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My sister lent me this book. In doing so she said that there's more sex in it than what she usually reads, but she thought it was appropriate to the topic. It's not more sex than what I usually read but I agree it's appropriate to the topic, although I think it will unfortunately limit the audience.

This is a YA ("Young Adult" - library/publishing term for books aimed at kids age 12-21 or so) novel about a 17-year-old gay male high school senior in the Chicago suburbs. It's a serio-comic first person story, crafted as Charles James Stewart's journal. His father - whom he refers to as "First" - is also Charles James Stewart, which is how he comes to think of himself as Charlie the Second.

A lot happens in Charlie's senior year - social changes (his best friend since elementary school has more time for a new girlfriend than for Charlie), relationship developments (his first boyfriend), a rocky time in his parents' marriage, etc. Charlie has a clever, snarky approach to life and he's very, very funny, often in a self-deprecating way. He's also kind of obsessed with sex, and much of the journal concerns masturbatory activities, sexual fantasies, and - eventually - actual interpersonal sex. The sexual descriptions are explicit and frequent and, unfortunately, will probably rule the book out for a lot of the target audience, or at least for the parents who buy them books.

Still, there's lots here for adult adults. Charlie is a fully realized and well-developed character and he grows and develops throughout the book. It's not a coming out book - he is already out well before the book starts - but rather a coming of age one. I liked that it's not a book about being gay but a book about a gay kid growing up. Charlie learns things about his parents, about family relationships, friendship, and sexuality and he often learns them with pain and difficulty. The other characters are all seen through Charlie's somewhat self-absorbed adolescent eyes, and Ferguson does a great job of letting the reader know things about them through Charlie's descriptions and experiences that Charlie himself does not realize. The sex is sometimes comic, sometimes poignant, often hot, and always very, very real. As is Charlie.

Highly recommended ( )

Funny, touching and cool. Heartily recommended. ( )

An interesting account of a gay teenager names Charlie. His life, his parents, his loves, his hates. Some graphic descriptions of his encounters with his boyfriend provided much more information than I was expecting.
The Sting tag is due to a funny piece about his mother (pg 93) and his manipulation of the lyrics to King of Pain.
"Nothing says angry-slash-angst-slash-artsy misunderstood, sensitive middle-aged, all-my-dreams-are-dead soccer mom like a blind devotion to Sting and REM."
The story follows the basic coming-of-age travails that many authors have explored with the added ingredient of homosexuality. ( )