Quiet and imaginative, Derek O'Reilly spends a lot of time watching a movie in his head. His fiancé Nathan, aka "Mr. Alpha", wonders why Derek hasn't taken any interest in their wedding planning. Aunt Fran—his spiritual guru—would like to know when her guilt–tripping nephew became some kind of kept boy. One evening, she drops Derek's childhood journal on his lap, forcing him to remember the name he's been trying to forget since he was eleven years old. Nicolai Lund.
Nick was Derek's neighbor—and first love.
Weeks before Derek's engagement party, a chance meeting with Nick catapults Derek into the past. Nick could flood Derek's stale existence like a blond tidal wave, but Nick isn't that sixteen–year–old rebel anymore. He's a man hardened by invisible scars.
As Derek reads through his diary, Nick and Derek's powerful relationship sways between past and present, sweeping over their emotional landscape, revealing what they were, still are, and might yet be to each other.
3 Reasons To buy this book
Nominee in the Gay Romance category for the 2011 Lambda Literary Award
Mel Bossa is my favorite new author - hands down - read this book. It's a wonderful story, beautifully told.
"…In this, her first novel, author Bossa gives an insightful and complex look at a young man's coming of age, as well as interesting examples of the fluidity of human sexuality and how a good friendship can evolve over the years. Very well written, and sure to resonate with most readers on some level. I give it a full five stars out of five."
Bob Lind, Echo Magazine
Review
Mel Bossa’s Split is a sweet coming-of-age, romance novel set in Montreal. The story alternates between entries from eleven year-old Derek’s journal and his current day emotional struggles with his fiancé, Nathan. The journal entries are a touching recount of a childhood challenged by emotionally distant parents and a growing understanding of his emerging sexuality.
Stylistically, emotionally and intellectually the childhood writings are beyond the maturity level of an eleven year-old. Although Derek’s childhood tale is both moving and engaging it may have been more believable had the character been just a few years older.
Bossa’s characters are not one-dimensional. Even Nate, the novel’s clear antagonist, is at times sympathetic when the target of Derek’s passive aggressive behavior. Derek himself is clearly damaged from his childhood, yet his refusal to respond to those who reach out to him and his inevitable emotional collapse make him seem real and not the flat, tragic character he might otherwise have been.
The most enjoyable character by far is Derek’s own Auntie Mame in the form of his Aunt Fran. She swoops in when he is abandoned by his parents and is the one constant, encouraging presence in his life. Aunt Fran is at the center of the book’s most light-hearted moments as well as its most touching.
Bossa’s Split is a pleasant, quick read.
Somewhat shy and socially inept, Derek O'Reilly grew up in an dysfunctional home, with a father who is always away for work and a mother who suffers from chronic depression after the sudden death of Derek's infant brother, who Derek referred to as "the Bump." His Aunt Fran, who acted as a surrogate parent for much of Derek's teen years, brings Derek the journal he kept during that time, as he first became aware of his sexuality from the crush he developed on Nick Lund, the older brother of Derek's best friend next door. Now an adult, and in an unfulfilling relationship with an "alpha male" type who wants to marry him, Derek reflects on the feelings he expressed in the journal, which put in perspective the choices he has since made as an adult.
In this, her first novel, author Bossa gives an insightful and complex look at a young man's coming of age, as well as interesting examples of the fluidity of human sexuality and how a good friendship can evolve over the years. Very well written, and sure to resonate with most readers on some level. I give it a full four stars out of four.
Insightful, well-written coming-of-age novel
