Zero Fade by Chris L. Terry
My rating: 5/5 cats
i’m not sure who the target audience for this book is—i think it is YA, but it is one of those rare gems that manages to simultaneously skew both younger and older. i could see a ten-year-old boy loving this, and i—an old lady, found it completely charming. and i am not one usually swayed by “charm.”
and, yeah, full disclosure, i know the dude—he is married to my friend sharon, and they are one of those infuriatingly talented couples that make you feel like you have accomplished NOTHING and that’s cool whatever, guys.
but my point is—i’m not just being a blindfolded friendly-friend here—this is a legitimately awesome book, and it’s the kind of book that some young kid will discover in their school library and it will be just what they need to read at the time. count on it.
kevin is thirteen, black, and living in richmond, virginia in the 90’s. he is preoccupied with girls, his hair, avoiding getting bullied at school, and most of all—with not coming across as gay. his idea of what “gay” actually is and what its characteristics are is a little murky. when he listens to his eddie murphy tape and hears him talking “faggot this” and “faggot that,” it is funny. the idea of two men getting it on is “nasty,” but so is the thought of his mother having had a sex life, or most adults for that matter. to the pre-sexual kevin, “gay” is much more than a bedroom situation:
Being gay is the worst thing possible. Being gay is fighting bad, sucking at sports, not getting girls, wearing hand-me-downs from forever ago, doing good in class, and looking at other dudes in the locker room. I won’t lie, except for doing good in class, I’ve done all those things. They’re easy for a guy to do, but only the gay ones really let it happen.
kevin’s father walked out on his family when he was very young, and his closest male role model is his uncle paul, his mother’s much-younger half-brother, who is the epitome of cool to kevin, with his leather jacket, nice car, easygoing but direct attitude, who laughs “like water bubbling down the drain” and can even make wearing glasses look slick.
paul is also, unbeknownst to kevin, gay.
this is a coming-of-age story that covers all the coming-of-age touchpoints: family squabbles, peer pressure, first crushes, insecurity over physical appearance, changing interests that distance him from his best, and only, friend, the all-encompassing selfishness of the teen years, and the dawning realization that grown-up life is full of disappointments:
…I stopped thinking about it and just saw the city at a crawl, looking in the windows of the car dealerships and doctor’s offices I passed.
How do grown folks wind up working at these places? When kids get asked what they wanna be when they grow up, they all say, “A firefighter,” or “President,” or “David Robinson from the San Antonio Spurs.” But there’s only like two hundred guys in the NBA, and only one president, and he’s white, and ain’t but so much on fire. So, I guess other people have to sell cars and sit at the desk at a doctor’s office telling people when to go in. Not what I want, though.
the situation with paul is, of course, one of the most important conflicts, and the novel is told from both paul and kevin’s points of view. this is one of the things that makes it appeal to an older audience; the adult voice as paul tries to find love, comes out to kevin, and deals with kevin’s resulting feelings of betrayal and discomfort. that, and the many pop culture references that are blasts from the past.
for example, this book reminded me that jodeci existed.
it’s just a great book with a far-reaching appeal, and a very strong voice. i loved it to pieces.
watch the trailer sharon made!
read the book-signing aifaf-postscript here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3…
and also, obviously, read this book!!!
read my book reviews on goodreads
