FICTION

Fifty Yards and Holding

by David-Matthew BARNES
192p. Bold Strokes. 2015. pap. $11.95. ISBN 9781626390812.
COPY ISBN
Gr 9 Up—Victor is newly head of his gang after the murder of his cousin. Riley is newly out of his prep school after the divorce of his parents. When they meet, sparks fly and complicate both their lives. Neither sexy enough to pass as a romance novel nor trashy enough to fall into the category of old fashioned pulp, Fifty Yards and Holding feels like a sanitized version of 1970s gay bookstore paperbacks. Both Victor and Riley are drawn as flimsy fantasy cliches (the Latin bad boy, the confident jock), and nothing that happens to or around them is fleshed out enough to hold any weight for readers. Oddly, Riley's mother is the most developed character. Barnes's background in playwriting shows through in this novel, with interesting development left unshown in favor of time jumps and set pieces.
VERDICT If there was some heat between the characters or some motivation for their actions this might be a fun fluffy title, but instead it reads as dated, sterile, and stereotypical.
Reviewed by L. Lee Butler, Hart Middle School, Washington, DC , Apr 01, 2015

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