Teaser Tuesday & Review : The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading.

1. Grab your current read and open to a random page.
2. Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on your random pages (but be careful to avoid spoilers!)
3. Share the name of the book and author so inquiring minds know what book to add to their TBR list!

The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Author : Nick Burd
Published May 14th 2009 by Dial

ISBN : 0803733402

ISBN13: 9780803733404

"We are now officially called Dingo and the Side Effects. Pretty cool, right? I'm Dizziness, Thomas is Vomiting, and if we get this dude that Dingo knows to play keyboard, he's going to be Diarrhea. Genius, right?"

Hmm! Not really!

"There was something almost apocalyptic about the way kids were coming toward the house from both end of the street like blank-minded zombies slouching toward the scent of beer. "



Love this one! 

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I actually finished reading this book last night after my post was ready. I really enjoyed reading it. It's not very often you get to read a book with a gay protagonist.

Dade knows he's gay. He's telling it to the ceiling and everything but he will not admit it to his friends and most importantly, to his parents. But when Alex, Dade's dream guy, comes in the picture, he gets the confidence he needs to come out of the closet. But then there's also Pablo. He was Dade's first "boyfriend" although he never wanted to address it publicly because you see, he has a girlfriend. The new romance between Alex and Dade makes him jealous and he regrets some of the things he's done. Tragedy strikes at the end (slightly predictable) and Dade's future will change.

This  book made me smile, laugh and made me sad all at the same time. The romance is sweet! There's also a lesbian character, Lucy who becomes Dade's friend. Having a gay main character is unlikely but having both a gay and lesbian character is even more rare. I loved it! There should be more books like this one. 

Dade has a lot going on right now. His parents' marriage is in Jeopardy and Pablo the guy he's somewhat seeing in secrecy won't admit he's gay. Dade didn't deserve that guy and I'm glad he found love with Alex. Alex is really a sweet guy, the total opposite of Pablo. He brings Dade flowers and everything! Dade is also lucky to have Lucy he can talk to. She really brings him out of his shell and is not afraid to stand-up for him. She can understand what he's going through.

The only thing I didn't particularly like about The Vast Fields of Ordinary is the missing nine-year-old girl that everyone expects to be dead even though her body has never been  found. People are apparently "seeing" her ghost everywhere and are positive it's her. Even Dade swears he saw her but I blame  it on the booze! I thought it didn't fit with the plot and it annoyed me more than anything. This isn't paranormal fiction but with that added to the plot it almost felt like it. I would've given the book 5 stars if not for that.

Overall, I think gay teens will relate to this story in more ways than one and might even find courage and strength to come out of the closet themselves.  I know my friend who's been out of the closet for a few years was up all night reading this book and I don't blame him! He was able to relate to Dade and  really thinks this book will help others. We both definitely recommend this book.

Warning : A lot of substance abuse



4 out of 5 stars!

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Okay, so this was only supposed to be a short paragraph but it turned out to be a full review! Oh well, you got two teasers and a review. What more could you ask for? :)