Book Review: Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada

He was a punk…He did ballet. What more can I say? For those who have the Avril Lavigne hit in their heads as they read the title, you’ll definitely have that song stuck in your head throughout the whole book, because Anthony Nerada’s debut novel Skater Boy is loosely based on that song, but it features two young men, rather than a young man and woman. As we get closer to Valentine’s Day, my romance reading continues, but this is a book written for young adults, and it’s quite chaste – not much more than some handholding and quick kisses. Admittedly I don’t read much YA, but I was blown away by how much I engaged with and enjoyed this book.

Plot Summary

Wes is the bad boy of his high school. Him and his two other friends are known for stealing lunch money, skipping school, and even spending time in juvie for setting a car on fire. His future doesn’t look much brighter; he’s on the verge of failing and applying for post-secondary is nowhere on his radar, while everyone else around him seems on their way to exciting new schools in the Fall. His mom and her fiancée Tad drag Wes to a ballet right before Christmas, and Wes falls in love with the leading man, Tristan. They meet after the show, and Wes quickly learns how different they are; Tristan goes to the ‘fancy’ school across town, is preparing to audition for the top-rated performance school in the country, and is proudly out of the closet. Wes is still firmly in the closet, and doesn’t have many plans past his skateboard and job at a pizza restaurant. But Tristan is interested in Wes and encourages him to find a different path, starting with joining the photography club at school (it looks great on school applications too!). But Wes is terrified of changing his image, and telling his friends who he’s been hanging out with lately. He’s also afraid of leaving his Mom behind; she took Wes and escaped her abusive husband when Wes was young, and they’ve always been a strong twosome. Centered on the complications of Wes’s life and those around him, Nerada zeroes in on the different kinds of bravery required by the teenagers in this small town of Ohio.

My Thoughts

It’s surprising how many issues Nerada is able to cram into this book without it feeling overwhelming. Wes and his friends are dealing with quite a bit, but it never threatens to overwhelm the book, it really only overwhelms them, the characters. Wes’s anger issues, his friends’ drinking problem, the fear of coming out of the closet, trauma from escaping an abusive household, it’s all swirling around this plotline, but it remains surprisingly believable throughout. There isn’t a lot of romance as you would normally expect it (at least not compared to the other queer romance I read a few months ago, review here). Instead, this book could easily be classified as a coming-of-age narrative, centered on the transition into a life that doesn’t contain labels, allowing a person to break free from their past, however that might have looked. Coming out of the closet is a big part of this story, and it brings to light an issue that many queer folks face; the challenge of constantly coming out of the closet, over and over again:

“‘Coming out isn’t just a onetime thing, Wes,’, he says, sighing. ‘You don’t think I get scared every time I meet someone new? I’m a Black gay man, for fuck’s sake!…’

The skateboards fall from my arm as he speaks, each word like a dagger being shoved through my heart. I’ve never thought about that before. Am I an idiot for believing I only had to do it once, to come out to Ma and The Tripod and that would be it? I can’t imagine spending my entire life not knowing whether people will accept or shun me. The thought alone makes me never want to come out.”

-p.158-159, Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada, ARC Edition

The fact that Tristan is black isn’t focused on too much. It highlights how different they are but, the ‘big’ issues like race and sexual orientation almost take a back seat to the other challenges in Wes’s life, which for some reason, felt more realistic to me. Kids of these newer generations are much more open-minded and inclusive, but still struggle with the same things we all did at the age; hormones, peer pressure, high school drama of all kinds.

I don’t typically read YA, but this book has me changing my mind. Perhaps I was writing it off unfairly as something that didn’t appeal to me, but I highly recommend this book to teens and adults alike.