"Never fall in love with a gay boy. And whatever you do, don't move to New York and invite said gay boy to live with you, to make a fresh start in a new city. After all, that was what I was trying to do. Yeah, I'm only eighteen, which is, as my father says, not old enough to know your head from your ass, but still, I should have known better. After all, I was valedictorian."
Colorful characters make this a great read for all ages
Bob Lind, Echo Magazine wrote on 02/02/2009:
TWELVE LONG MONTHS
by Brian Malloy
(Scholastic Press, June 2008, $17.99 hardcover)
Molly Swain is a rather shy, intelligent high school senior in small town Minnesota, with a major crush on her chemistry lab partner, Mark Dahl, a brooding, sullen but handsome teen, who owes his grade in that class to Molly's help. When Molly finds out that Mark will be moving to New Jersey after graduation, not far from where she'll be going to college, at Columbia in Manhattan, on a full scholarship, she dreams that this one-sided romance might develop into more. But it isn't long before Molly gets a painful revelation ... Mark is gay ... and painfully tries to get over her dreams for them, and be the good friend and confidant that he needs. It becomes easier when Molly starts dating a guy from one of her classes, but fate would deliver another blow she never saw coming.
I've read and enjoyed Malloy's earlier works, "The Year of Ice" and "Brendan Wolf," and now know what I like most about his writing: he has the ability to create multifaceted, realistic characters with whom the reader can relate. We like them for their good qualities, and sometimes even more because of (or in spite of) their faults. Such is the case with all of the characters here, including the families of each of the younger characters. Well written, light read, which I give three stars out of four.
Colorful characters make this a great read for all ages
