Ready When You Are author CREDIT Gary Lonesborough
YA novel tells a familiar story in a setting new to most
TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER | Bookworm Sez
BookwormSez@yahoo.com
Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough; c.2022, Scholastic PUSH; $18.99; 245 pages.
Loud thunder-booms. Spiders and snakes. The number 13, clowns, cemeteries and heights. There are a lot of things that you can fear, just as there are a lot of ways you can overcome phobias if you want. Vanquish those shivers by taking classes, being brave or, as in the new novel Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough, you can let someone gently help you.
If he had to admit it, 17-year-old Jackson Barley had a love-hate relationship with Christmas. He loved its traditions, and he loved it because it was something out of the ordinary. When hanging out with your mates on the Mish is all you normally do, it’s nice to have the holidays to break up the same-old.
But over Christmas break, his Aunty Pam always brought his cousins around, and the house was full of little kids. Jackson loved his younger brother and his cousins, but man! Could they make a racket!
This year, another thing was unusual: Aunty Pam arrived Christmas Eve with a teenager she was caring for, a boy named Tomas who’d just gotten out of juvie. Of course, Jackson’s mother said that Tomas could bunk in Jackson’s room, and that wasn’t cool — not at first. Jackson’s mind was elsewhere: His girlfriend broke up with him for reasons he couldn’t discuss.
For most of his life, Jackson had known that he was “different.” He tried to be like other boys, but it just didn’t work that way. And he was afraid to even think about his feelings. And now there was this outlaw kid, another Aboriginal boy like him, lying on a mattress in Jackson’s bedroom, and, oh, Tomas was beautiful.
But Jackson wasn’t gay. At least, he wasn’t ready to be. He wanted a summer with his mates, and girls, but he wanted Tomas to kiss him, too. How could he be true to himself? And what would people think?
There are three main characters inside Ready When You Are: Jackson, Tomas and alcohol — lots of alcohol.
And teenagers who are often excessively drunk, which almost totally mars the sweetness of this novel.
Put aside endless Outback parties and repetitious beach forays, though, and you might be charmed by this familiar-not-familiar boy-meets-boy tale.
In placing his novel in an Aboriginal community, author Gary Lonesborough gives U.S. readers a unique setting and immersion in a culture where life feels more relaxed than perhaps they’re accustomed to. And yet, coming-out struggles for gay teens still exist.
This leads to a story that, scene-for-scene, is predictable and common in YA romance novels — an aspect the genre’s most fervent readers passionately rely on. They’ll also love Jackson, a boy in a man’s skin who acts responsibly and genuinely but who’s not yet too self-assured about it. Life through his eyes is the best part of this book.
Though you’ll likely find this novel in the Young Adult section, it’s absolutely appropriate for grown-ups with fond memories of first love. Ready When You Are has its lows, but it might also make your heart go boom.
Memoir reminds us to count our blessings
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How Do I Un-Remember This? Unfortunately True Stories by Danny Pellegrino; c.2022, Sourcebooks; $25.99; 272 pages.
Some things are better forgotten: That time you had a wardrobe failure in gym class. Ugh, when your mom revealed one of your childhood incidents to your best frenemy. The worst date everrr.
Those are things you’d like to pretend never happened, but they did and, as in How Do I Un-Remember This? by Danny Pellegrino, what have you learned from them?
Memories are funny things: You can reminisce with someone about something you both saw or experienced but you won’t remember the exact same things in the same way. Says the host of the podcast Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino, that’s when it’s perfectly okay to take a “little detour” … .
Growing up in a small town in Ohio, Pellegrino remembers being an awkward kid. He had many friends, but they couldn’t always be trusted. At sleepovers, he generally preferred the company of the host’s mother, because she could be counted on for good gossip.
He liked girls sometimes, but he remembers how confusing that was, because he liked boys, too. He recalls bad dates, good brothers, the process of coming out and the fluster of being outed.
Even his family could be awkward: He remembers family trips as being full of cheap motels, bad roads and “stress wine” for his mother.
And what can you learn from this?
You learn that if your parents can embarrass you, they will. And that bruises last forever, but they don’t always hurt that long. Know that there are days when it’s perfectly okay to say no but that any time is a good time to discuss “The Trolley Song.”
You’ll see why we should retire the young-white-cis-man trope in superhero movies. You’ll learn why it’s important to be careful of the things your cleaning lady has access to, and you’ll be thankful if you have parents who love you.
And you’ll learn that, sometimes, life is simply “about getting through the journey alongside the ones you love.”
Judging a book by its cover is something we’ve been told not to do. But still — looking at the front of this memoir hints at the humor inside, and yep, humor is here. But it isn’t the only thing. How Do I Un-Remember This? is warm and fuzzy, too.
That might be because this book is more like a conversation than a monologue. Author Danny Pellegrino includes his readers in his memories, and even when they’re not identical, they’re universal. Embarrassments during puberty, parents that make you red-faced, bad dates, public humiliation, fan obsessions — been there, done that, discussed and disgusted.
But then those things are put into perspective in a way that seems like a gentle hand on your arm. Count your blessings, Pellegrino reminds readers, and look for the good and wise in what you recall. Even when — maybe especially when — those memories are full of barbs.
Have fun reading this book, but don’t be surprised if How Do I Un-Remember This? tugs on your soul, too. Indeed, while some things are better forgotten, this book isn’t one of them.
