Tales From Foster High – Casey Carlisle

A drama filled gay contemporary we can all learn from.

Genre: Y/A, Contemporary, GLBT

No. of pages: 300

From Goodreads:

Kyle Stilleno is no longer the invisible boy, and he doesn’t quite know how he feels about it. On one hand, he now has a great boyfriend, Brad Greymark, and a handful of new friends, and even a new job. On the other hand, no one screamed obscenities at him in public when he was invisible.

No one expected him to become a poster boy for gay rights, either—at least not until Kyle stepped out of the closet and into the limelight. But there are only a few months of high school left, and Kyle doubts he can make a difference.

With Christmas break drawing closer, Kyle and Brad are changing their lives to include each other. While the trials are far from over, they have their relationship to lean on. Others are not so lucky. One of their classmates needs their help—but Kyle and Brad’s relationship may be too new to survive the strain.

After falling in love with the angsty bind-up or the first three books in this series, all the drama that the two protagonists Kyle and Brad face, I went out and purchased the rest of the books in this collection. I’m anticipating more challenges and a strong foundation to grow with this couple. I look forward to a collection of contemporary stories following a gay couple, as I’ve pretty much only read standalones. Usually series fall into the fantasy genre. I wanted real-life issues and a positive long-lasting relationship. And that is what Tales From Foster High has continued to deliver with this fourth instalment ‘End of the Innocence.’

I must admit, I was very disappointed with the first half of this book. The characters seemed to have gone backward and acting in unexpected ways. It was also blindingly obvious that the authors hand was guiding the story in the direction he wanted it to go. Nothing felt organic and I felt crushed.

Then in the last half things got better, Kyle and Brad got their old spark back, and I found some chemistry with the narrative. It still had a forced tone about it, like author was using the story to highlight a cause and opinions around it.

There was a lot of repetition of ‘I love you’s’ and ‘it gets better,’ which became mildly annoying. But the couple were endearingly clueless and cute at the same time. The continual switching of perspective between Kyle and Brad didn’t really add much – I felt it disarmed some great storytelling devices to build up tension and drive the story forward. As a reader I like to be kept guessing – having the answers laid out for me, of what was going on in each of their heads all the time deflated some of the angst I’ve come to expect from this series.

I like how it wasn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows. Mainly because it revolved around a cause – and this therein lies my difficulty with ‘End of the Innocence.’ On the one hand, it came off as preachy and totally did not fit the Kyle and Brad story so far. Characters out of context. But on the other, once I got over that hurdle and the story got going, it was bloody brilliant. There are some important things brought up in the narrative facing gay youth and I liked the way it’s introduced, discussed, and handled.

It brought up things like bullying and suicide, and how to approach these in a way other than violence – which was amazing to read. There is even a little more in the author’s note at the back of the book as to why these topics were discussed.

So while I commend this book for the issues it tackles, and applaud actually spelling out ways to combat it; I felt the story as a whole was a little disjointed. So far it is my least favourite of the series, but gives the best support for issues faced by some gay youth.

I’d only recommend this for those who strongly connect with the material, or fans of the series.

Overall feeling: mmmmokay…

© Casey Carlisle 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Casey Carlisle with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Another teen coming out story – but I lurved it J.

Genre: Y/A, Contemporary, GLBT

No. of pages: 219

From Goodreads:

Kyle Stilleno is the invisible student, toiling through high school in the middle of Nowhere, Texas. Brad Greymark is the baseball star of Foster High. When they bond over their mutual damage during a night of history tutoring, Kyle thinks maybe his life has changed for good. But the promise of fairy-tale love is a lie when you’re gay and falling for the most popular boy in school. A coming of age story in the same vein of John Hughes, Tales from Foster High shows an unflinching vision of the ups and downs of teenage love and what it is like to grow up gay.

This brought some unexpected feels from me. A couple of little story arcs to tug at my heartstrings. Other than that, ‘Tales from Foster High’ was an excellent tale of angst, coming out, and discovering the stuff that you are made of. Told in dual perspectives this bind-up edition of three novellas feels seamless as one big story.

Kyle is a brilliant portrayal of the invisible kid, just trying to make it through high school and get out of his home town. I also like how, even though he was portrayed as a nerd, he wasn’t stereotyped as covered with pimples, wearing glasses, skinny, and unattractive. It was great to see him through Brad’s eyes and know that beauty is subjective to the beholder.

Brad, although embodying the ‘all American jock’ trope, quickly started deconstructing those expectations with is actions in the first chapter. I admired his teetering between courage and fear.

Both of these characters go through a lot and come out the other side different people.

The parents were a little annoying. It felt a bit stereotyped, and even though they went through their own storylines as well, I felt their behaviour at the end nothing short of miraculous. And unrealistic. Though it added a great deal of impact and added to the romantic climax.

There are some sex scenes – which while a little titillating, served the tone of the novel from the male perspective. Their encounters were meaningful and not over written.

The bullying gets a little violent and had me questioning where the teachers and parents were through all of this. I know events like this are still a reality in some schools, and thankfully starting to decrease in numbers as acceptance grows, but the neglect of the school was downright criminal and thought they got off far too easily. Plus the rest of the students seemed to be a mass of people that just went with the flow instead of a realistic hot-pot of personalities and beliefs. In the real world someone would have made noise in some respect, either by getting parents, teachers or authorities involved.

So, a fun story, a little unrealistic, but highlighted a lovely romance and some hot-button struggles gay youth face in school – highlighting an education system that can become corrupt.

Eye opening and heart-warming. Something about coming out stories draws me in, and with ‘Tales From Foster High’ having a social conscious and dealing with important issues sheds light on aspects of growing up gay I may have otherwise never known about. But at the core of it, this novel has a beautiful growing relationship between two unsuspecting teens. This experience has me keen to purchase the rest of the books written in this collection – even though they are mostly only available in e-book format.

Overall feeling: Naw, aint that sweet.