wild of Mayr (who afaik is cis?) to name the drag queen character after herself. I'm not saying Crêpe Suzette isn't a good drag name I just think it's lightly wild behavior

Nowadays, it's been Disney-fied, but once-upon-a-time the unicorn wasn't about pink glitter and rainbows, but about raw passions, about what cannot be tamed.

In one of Da Vinci's notebooks is this note: "The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it."

The creature came to be associated with purity, and, so, with healing, and it was highly sought after, by poets and dreamers and scientists and rulers alike. This was not some flight-of-fancy: people believed in unicorns.

Readers looking for a unicorn story in Monoceros will be disappointed, but these ideas permeate the novel: raw passion, purity, the need to heal, the hunt, conviction and faith.

It's also possible to see the faintest echo of the famous Hunt tapestry in the opening pages of the novel, in which readers are introduced to reasons why Patrick Furey killed himself on a Monday.

Patrick forgot his ferocity and fearlessly laid his head in the lap of a boy that he loved. And it ended badly.

Readers only glimpse Patrick for a few pages, but it's enough to pull him close.

And the layered perspectives which follow (from that boy who did love Patrick back -- but not fearlessly, from Patrick's mother, from other students and also staff at the high school, among others) build the reader's understanding of this seventeen-year-old boy.

And, even though he is not Patrick for many of these people -- for many of them he is simply "the dead boy" -- his death has a far-reaching effect.

Monoceros charts this without crossing into empty sentimentalism, and the novel manages to explore the variety of responses (some more immediately sympathetic than others) to the young boy's death with compassion, without overlooking the inherent tragedy of his belief that what he could not tame made him unworthy, his life un-live-able.

(Please read my full response to this work on Buried In Print.) ( )

Description:

A teen's suicide triggers a community to reflect on its actions. Students, faculty, and family members "tell" their own side of the story, while trying to make sense of a tragedy that could have been avoided.

Review:

Monoceros is definitely one of the most interesting books I have read in 2012. It is an unexpected and unique take on the aftermath of a homosexual teen's suicide, as told by the students, staff, and family he left behind. At first, I couldn't get past the sentence and grammatical structure of the text, it was choppy and strangely formatted. I did not enjoy the repetitiveness, nor did I favor the total lack of quotation marks. The dashes used made it difficult to determine which individuals were speaking during conversations. I did however appreciate the depth and personalities of the colorful cast of characters; especially Max, Crepe Suzette, Faraday, and Walter. The story-line was well-constructed, honest, and full of emotion. Even though each of the characters only had a small section written in their own perspective, I felt that the mix of thoughts and conversations kept the reader intrigued and sympathetic. I eventually got over most of the punctuation problems, but I still found them annoying. The only other problem I had was with the ending, I found it confusing and unnecessary. The writing itself was intricate, but I couldn't pinpoint the proposed audience. Overall, a strange, yet unique read; still unsure about the unicorn aspect... (no spoilers).

Rating: Bounty's Out (3/5)

* I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. ( )

The book begins with "The End": Patrick Furey has committed suicide: "Because u r a fag is written on his locker. Because...." In this book, Suzette Mayr describes the impact of a teenager's suicide on his mother, class mates, and the staff at the Catholic high school he attended.

The characters in this book are real people; they are flawed and selfish. Patrick's death is about them, not about him or about societial pressure. They worry about thier own relationships: the girl who lost her boyfriend to Patrick; the school guidance counsellor who becomes frustrated wtih having to keep his same-sex marriage to the principal a secret. Patrick is a catalyst for the choices they make moving forward.

This is a tragic book. Patrick's feelings of isolation seem vindicated by the reactions his death provoked. Yet, Ms. Mayr has written it in a deeply human way: we are not perfect, we all have insecurities and dreams. And life does go on.

Strong characters, good writing. Look for more by this author. ( )