Ben, his dad and his stepdad move to a podunk town in eastern Montana to live with the stepdad’s sassy elderly mother. The move is ostensibly because Ben has been spiraling into drugs, alcohol and just bad behavior for the past three years, since his dad came out and his mom left. Ben is forced to deal with the cultural shock, as well as coming to terms with his own feelings regarding his dad’s sexual orientation.
It was definitely good to see this angle on homosexuality, as there are tons of kids who have to deal with what Ben’s dealing with. It could have been written a bit more elegantly though. The first chapter gives almost the entire backstory for Ben's situation, when I felt that should have been sprinkled throughout the book. Also, the town and a lot of the people in it come across very stereotyped (there’s got to be SOMEONE in this town who doesn’t listen to country music and I refuse to believe that Ben’s the only teenager that wears baggy shorts there), though not when it comes to accepting the gay couple that moves in. I didn’t think I’d enjoy the story much based on the beginning, though I stuck with it and I ended up liking it better than I thought I would. All in all, it was OK.
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