Just a Boy

by Rob Clinger

"Gay people don't finish last ... they win!"

High school wrestler Jove Tyler might look like an average guy but he's "different." Instead of falling for Beth Stein, his caring and compassionate "girlfriend" at Templeton High, Jove develops a secret crush on his cute classmate Jason Carnivelli, who lives next door—and is happy to stay in the closet. Just A Boy looks back at a time just short of manhood, filled with first kisses, last chances, and the same question every day: Who will accept me for who I am?

From Just A Boy:

I had to be honest with myself. I was different than all the other boys at Templeton High School. I wasn't like my friends: Michael and Jason. I was Jove Randall Tyler, and sometimes I found myself looking at Michael or Jason in the wrong manner, a different kind of way. I felt a tingle in my stomach or down in my groin. I became dizzy and confused, almost light-headed ... insanely different.

Stop looking at Michael Hennington's biceps, Jove! This is what I screamed inside my mind.

Keep your eyes off Jason Carnivelli's butt while he's in his baseball uniform! Shame on you.

You figured it out, didn't you? I was different because I liked other guys. I was not different because I was a wrestler on the Templeton Titans Wrestling Team, somewhat a popular kid, somewhat attractive with my ash-colored eyes and slim-muscular build. I wasn't different because Beth Stein considered herself my girlfriend, liking me. Inside, though, I was very different. I was a mess, alone, and really different. I was screwed up. Mental. Just crazy. I was what some of my friends would have called a faggot or queer because I liked the same sex, because I liked to stare at boysinstead of girls, because I was Jove Tyler from 254 Sunnydale Lane in Templeton, Pennsylvania. I was different ... and most of the time I didn't like it.

But Jove isn't going to change—there won't be a single morning he wakes up and likes girls! Just A Boy is a funny and familiar story of that difficult, heartfelt, heartbreaking time between junior high and high school, when a boy is desperate to fit it, without having to pretend to be something—and someone—he's not.

Genres: LGBT, Gay

214 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2007

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Challenge 2018: book about or involving sport. Jove has a secret. He lives in a small town called Templeton, is on the wrestling team, and is in love with his neighbor Jason. He is dating Beth, a popular girl at school, but feels smothered by her. He works for a gardner named Richard, as he has been secretly watching him, but he is too old for Jove. He falls in love with Tray, a guy who lived in his aunt's town, who ends up disappearing. The is stocked by a rich kid named "Razor" who leads him down a path of drugs and alcohol. In the end, he gets what he wants, a true happy ending. No more wrestling or Matt Damon posters or drugs or faking his love for Beth. This is a sweet coming of age tale about a boy who is finding his own skin. His mother is the perfect mom and supports him. His friends are questionable, but kids he grew up with. Many points of the story were predictable, and a couple unbelievable, like a nearly absent father.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Coming out stories are hardly new, yet because it is such a unique, individual experience for each of us, gay young adult novels are understandably dominated by this story formula. Although I am not an avid reader of young adult literature, I praise these authors for letting the youth of today know that they are not alone.

Author R. W. Clinger, whose novel Just a Boy is the story of seventeen-year-old Jove's struggle with being "different," perhaps attempts to say or accomplish too much about the young protagonist's coming out. When Clinger introduces Jove, he is not only the stereotypical teen, but the stereotypical closet case as well; he comes from a small town, he's on the high school wrestling team, his best friend (aptly named Moose) is preoccupied with getting laid, he's had a crush since childhood on his friend and neighbor Jason, he shares a Stepford-like relationship with his mother, and his father barely acknowledges his existence. And let's not forget Beth, whom he refers to as his "so-called" girlfriend.

If that's not enough drama for Jove, he lands a summer job with a hunky landscaper who conveniently turns out to be gay. While visiting his favorite aunt, he literally bumps into another gay teen, who he later rescues from a brutal bashing incident. He then proceeds to form a friendship of sorts with skateboarder, Dean (nicknamed Razor), after he nearly runs him over. Jason, meanwhile, returns from spending the summer in San Francisco with a new sense of awareness, as well as a new companion, Ted. Fueled by jealousy, Jove soon becomes acquainted with alcohol and drug abuse--which results in a violent encounter with Razor, followed by a car wreck that totals his mom's car and nearly kills him.

While many of these social issues are especially relevant and worthy of discussion for gay teens--drug use, hate crimes, casual sex--Clinger's time would have been better spent if he had focused on only one or two of Jove's seemingly countless struggles. Instead, he tries to tackle every possible scenario a gay teen, closeted or otherwise, could potentially fall victim to, with the regrettable result that many questions are left unanswered. Had I not become at least somewhat intrigued with Jove and Jason's relationship, arguably the most believable in the book, I may not have made it all the way through to the end. Since this is his first young adult novel (the author has three previous works to his credit), I haven't altogether ruled out Clinger's ability to write, but I would suggest he think again before writing for this genre a second time.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Regrets, I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention.: This might well be Joves song.

A young high-school wrestler living in Pennsylvania has a girlfriend, a neighbor boy that he's always been sweet on, and a senior year ahead of him.

He makes some mistakes along the way, has some misadventures, but unlike real life, you just know that somehow everyone is gonna end up OK. (at least in his close circle of friends)

Really a sweet story and a nice change from some of the more tragedy-laden fare out there. This is a young adult read that's both realistic and life-affirming.

This one has gotten some rather low ratings from other reviewers, but personally, I liked it a LOT.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book that I can't bring myself to finish. Stopped at page 75.

Some of the things that made me stop reading:

The character names. They are so unrealistic that they take me out of the story. Trey Better? Richard Find?

I don't think Jove has run into anyone who is not gay (okay, maybe the drug pushers, but that scene lasted less than a page).

First person point of view is soooo not working here. It isn't adding any insight into the character, except to make me start to hate him.

The copyright info at the bottom of each chapter. It gives this a novice feel to it.

The other reviews from the people who did read it all the way through. It doesn't sound like it gets any better.


Sorry, book.

[Robert Greene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't help but feel smug in saying to myself that I wrote a better book. The main problem is that he doesn't speak in "teen words" for the time period this story is set in. He speaks in a langugage from probably when he (the author) was a teen. Even the nicknames he picked were archaic.

My one common complaint about some gay writers is that they are overly descriptive on "muscles" and "physiques." Bob Clinger is an author who makes that mistake, too.

I thought it odd how the Jove (the main character) would be smitten with "Richard Find" one minute but when they first meet develops mistrust of him upon first interaction for now reason. Then how "upon this first meeting, Richard offers him a job. It played out like a poorly written script in a bad B-Movie.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seventeen year old Jove is attracted to some of his male friends, particularly to Jason who lives next door, as well as to a neighbor's gardener he's been spying on, He's relieved that the girlfriend he doesn't really care about is going away for the summer. Through a series of typical ups and downs over the next few months, Jove comes out, and finally finds himself with the boyfriend he's wanted all along. Unfortunately the writing is stilted, and the chapters, at approximately three pages each, are annoyingly short. Oddly, the publisher has chosen to put copyright information at the bottom of the first page of each chapter, and I found that interrupted the flow of the story even more.