Way to Go by Tom Ryan Format: Hardcover
Published by Orca Book Publishers on 2012-04-01
Pages: 224
Goodreads
Genres: Adolescence, Dating & Sex, Friendship, Homosexuality, Social Issues, Young Adult
Danny thinks he must be the only seventeen-year-old guy in Cape Breton – in Nova Scotia, maybe – who doesn't have his life figured out. His buddy Kierce has a rule for every occasion, and his best friend Jay has bad grades, no plans and no worries. Danny's dad nags him about his post-high-school plans, his friends bug him about girls and a run-in with the cops means he has to get a summer job. Worst of all, he's keeping a secret that could ruin everything.
September is National Library Card Sign Up Month.
Every time I have moved to a new city I always made it a point to go and get a library card. Since living in Montreal I have had four library cards at four different libraries but when the island of Montreal merged alot of the local cities didn’t so now you have to pay to be a member of these libraries so now I only go to the two libraries that are in my area because as a resident I don’t have to pay.
I have noticed that over the summer we borrow alot more books then any other time of the year and that is due to the fact that Michael does various library activities and it makes returning books so much easier then other times of the year but thankfully as a parent volunteer at my son’s school I have complete access to that.
So this month I plan on reviewing only library books. I managed to pick up a whole bunch of books that I don’t think I would have picked up otherwise. I was introduced to a whole new bunch of books as well as you will find out this month.
The first book I am reviewing today is Way to Go by Tom Ryan. He is a Canadian author. He was originally from the East Coast of Canada but he currently lives on the West Coast of Canada.
This is Tom’s first novel. I had no idea about this book until I was looking for Tag Along (that review will be coming up this month as well) which is Tom’s second novel. Seeing it on the shelf I decided to pick it up.
Danny has just finished grade 11 and he has no idea who he is or who he wants to be. He is looking forward to spending the summer with his friends Jay and Kierce. Sounds like a great summer for any teen but what his friends don’t know and its not revealed until almost the end of the book is that Danny is gay and he has been trying so hard to fit in with his friends and not have them thinking he is gay.
I could totally understand that because he lived in a tiny little village in Nova Scotia in the 90s and you just didn’t hear about those things happening in tiny little areas. You knew it happened in bigger cities.
So throughout the book Danny is struggling and trying to keep this secret. He tries to hook up with girls but its just not happening for him. Yes the girls do fall for Danny because he is cute. One night at a party Danny gets drunk and he hopes that this could be it but when he goes into kiss a girl he dumps his beer all over her and she freaks out.
Danny takes off when gay comments are thrown at him he gets stopped by Kierce’s day who is a cop. Danny goes home to tell his mom and figures the only way to keep her son on the straight and narrow is to make him get a summer job and its in this summer job that Danny realizes who he is and what he wants to be.
Thanks to an old of his mom’s who hires him to work at her new restaurant he meets Lisa. He is in awe of her and I think he thinks she could be the one. You can see the flirting going on between them. I think had Kierce not stepped in perhaps something could have happened. Lise is like no other girl he has meet before. She is a bit older, has travelled the world and comes from NYC. She gets Danny to open up and be who he is and its thanks to her that Danny had to courage to be who he is.
I am excited to start Tag Along.