Golden Boy
by Abigail Tarttelin
Golden Boy, as a list of things that made me want to grab the author by the shoulders and shake her:
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There's a VERY graphic rape scene near the beginning of the book, and it goes on for PAGES. Max is 15 years old at that point. I don't know that there's anything... technically... wrong with it, and of course it's supposed to be totally nauseating, but that doesn't make it a good writing decision either. It feels exploitative as hell.
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I wanted to like the doctor, Archie. She dealt with the situation excellently most of the time---with one huge exception right at the end, which managed to cancel out almost every good move that she'd made in the story. The other glaring issue with Archie is that most of her monologues are nothing more than MASSIVE INFO DUMPS, and she doesn't have much of a personality. The info dumps, at least, were pretty accurate, based on my own reading about intersex conditions.
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I was all ready for the story to end nontraditionally, with Hunter not being brought to justice, and Max regaining control of his life on his own terms, and not being forced to rehash his experiences over and over with his family/in court. Max finally tells off Hunter at the end, and you feel how sickeningly hard it is for him, and you're cheering him, and you think that's going to be the end of that. And then there's this TOTALLY FUCKING GRATUITOUS PLOTLINE where Sylvie betrays Max's wishes and tells his parents that it's Hunter, and the parents get to cry/stomp around/call the police/restrain themselves from beating him up, which only lasts a few pages!! and I think it's supposed to be cathartic!! but it's not!!!! it's cathartic for every character except Max and how fucked up is that!!!!!!
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When the author holds us in suspense about whether Max succeeded in killing himself, I almost threw the damn book at the wall. Because that's REAL FUCKING INNOVATIVE, killing off the LGBTI character at the end!!!!!!! WE'VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE!!!! So I pushed on, and Max doesn't die, and then I was slightly glad I hadn't thrown the book at the wall, but let me tell you, it was a very. near. thing.
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On the positive side, I liked that Max ended up questioning his gender identity to some degree and sort of decided he was non binary, but I also liked that he's never really in doubt about his sexuality and that he already knows that genitals don't mean gender.
That I thought Golden Boy was largely well-written and interesting despite these flaws says something about the power of the rest of it. Tarttelin's editor was asleep at the wheel. I'm very torn about what overall rating to give it; ultimately, the unevenness won't let me give it more than three.
(Actual review posted 3 Jan 2014)