What do you think?
Michael
Ben cannot keep his mind off of the handsome young man sitting at the back of his world literature class. He fantasizes and fantasizes, and then he acts. An amorous, hysterical, and unusual tale by the author of Nathan's Story and Atom Heart John Beloved.
34 pages, Paperback
First published June 26, 2013
About the author
Luke Hartwell
39 books62 followersReaders can track Luke Hartwell's book releases on the Watersgreen House website. Luke's books are available from Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Gardners, Baker & Taylor, Smashwords, Scribd, Odilo, and OverDrive.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 13, 2013
Just what I needed. I laughed out loud quite a bit and was grinning the entire time. This is 35 pages of pure entertainment and the perfect little pick-me-up for a crappy day.
July 8, 2013
I really liked this crazy little story. It was totally unique. Pretend like you are actually in the brain of a horny, infatuated college student, that's what you have here. It's a 34 page stream of consciousness tale of falling in love in the classroom. It was totally random and completely charming. Read it with an open mind and you'll appreciate the simplicity of it.
August 21, 2014
Between 3,5 and 4 stars!
Heart-warming!
Charming!
Beautiful!
Sweet!
P.S My absolutely favourite chapter is the number 4!!!
This hymn to Michael's dick!..OMG. That was GREAT! :))
May 31, 2014
This is written just like a college-age brain works. Exactly.
I grinned and recognized it all. Girl or guy going for a girl or a guy, everyone thoughtstill thinks like this. Everyone. Ha!!
There isn't a lot of wasting time in college when it comes to looking for sex, having sex, wanting sex, fantasizing about sex... we may have wasted our time discussing the Animaniacs instead of studying, but that was only because we weren't having sex right then.
Clever, if a bit repetitious, definitely funny, and I'm so going to read more by this author.
I grinned and recognized it all. Girl or guy going for a girl or a guy, everyone thought
There isn't a lot of wasting time in college when it comes to looking for sex, having sex, wanting sex, fantasizing about sex... we may have wasted our time discussing the Animaniacs instead of studying, but that was only because we weren't having sex right then.
Clever, if a bit repetitious, definitely funny, and I'm so going to read more by this author.
August 11, 2013
Very short. Very visual. Very refreshing. I think I grinned widely all the way throughout the story.
March 3, 2014
Luke Hartwell, you are two for two! I really liked the irreverent humor in this one. Ben was great as the narrator. This was a shorty but goody. I would like to read more about Michael's brothers.
August 29, 2014
3.5 stars.
Sweet and easy read.
Beautiful writing, but way way too short!
Sweet and easy read.
Beautiful writing, but way way too short!
August 22, 2014
Short and sweet.
I just wish it had some plot. I know LH is capable of writing a mind-blowing shortie, as his other book, Jimmy, proves it. But this felt rushed and missing something, IMO.
The writing, however, is great, as always.
I just wish it had some plot. I know LH is capable of writing a mind-blowing shortie, as his other book, Jimmy, proves it. But this felt rushed and missing something, IMO.
The writing, however, is great, as always.
September 2, 2013
Loved it! This story made me smile and laugh. It was sexy and hot. So Luke Hartwell!
You people need to read this author. Don't wait, put it on top of your to-read shelf :)
You people need to read this author. Don't wait, put it on top of your to-read shelf :)
July 18, 2024
I bought this because it was inexpensive and I was curious about the author having read reviews of his 'Atom Heart John Beloved' which was a Rainbow Award winner. It is not a bad story, but it is an insubstantial story. There is sex, but not much else, maybe most young men now, or maybe always, communicated on the barely literate level of 'Dude you wanna fuck?' but it is not what I remember. I don't say the erotic rituals of my youth were more successful only that they were drawn out. I wouldn't say that we were any less obsessed with the physical only that one of the wonders of, not sex, but sexual desire, was that it didn't only involve wrestlers with flat tummies and toned bodies.
This story, and probably most? all? of Mr. Hartwell's oeuvre is aimed at a YA audience of which I am far from belonging. It is erotic and honest about desire and what young men (well any men but I suspect Mr. Hartwell's stories only involve the young) do with their bodies and what they think about when they are not doing it. But men, even teenagers, as much as they enjoy, and often as they enjoy, le petit mort do not think only of it or its liquid consequences. From the reviews and comments on other of Mr. Hartwell's works it appears the mention and description of 'emissions' (as they were so quaintly referred to in my youth) is a regular feature of his stories and novels. This appears to surprise, disgust and even enrage some reviewers. I am just amazed that anyone finds it worth commenting on. For goodness sakes Aleister Crowley published 'White Stains' in 1898, Jean Cocteau's 'White Paper' was available in English since the 1950s and since the 1990s there have been many Japanese Anime 'boy love' stories in English - spunk, ejeculate, cum, jizz, splooge, love juice or whatever non de plume is used is nothing new.
There is almost something charming in the idea that the young can be so fastidious about the mention of something so commonplace.
As for this story - Micheal is enjoyable but about as interesting as a bubble and has the depth of a puddle. Bubbles, and puddles, can be attractive, but they are neither substantial nor deep. Sex is only really interesting when it is about more then sex - I don't mean it has to a Romeo & Julio love story but even nameless, anonymous sex is about more then sex. I give this a very charitable three stars and have removed all of Mr. Hartwell's works from my TBR list.
This story, and probably most? all? of Mr. Hartwell's oeuvre is aimed at a YA audience of which I am far from belonging. It is erotic and honest about desire and what young men (well any men but I suspect Mr. Hartwell's stories only involve the young) do with their bodies and what they think about when they are not doing it. But men, even teenagers, as much as they enjoy, and often as they enjoy, le petit mort do not think only of it or its liquid consequences. From the reviews and comments on other of Mr. Hartwell's works it appears the mention and description of 'emissions' (as they were so quaintly referred to in my youth) is a regular feature of his stories and novels. This appears to surprise, disgust and even enrage some reviewers. I am just amazed that anyone finds it worth commenting on. For goodness sakes Aleister Crowley published 'White Stains' in 1898, Jean Cocteau's 'White Paper' was available in English since the 1950s and since the 1990s there have been many Japanese Anime 'boy love' stories in English - spunk, ejeculate, cum, jizz, splooge, love juice or whatever non de plume is used is nothing new.
There is almost something charming in the idea that the young can be so fastidious about the mention of something so commonplace.
As for this story - Micheal is enjoyable but about as interesting as a bubble and has the depth of a puddle. Bubbles, and puddles, can be attractive, but they are neither substantial nor deep. Sex is only really interesting when it is about more then sex - I don't mean it has to a Romeo & Julio love story but even nameless, anonymous sex is about more then sex. I give this a very charitable three stars and have removed all of Mr. Hartwell's works from my TBR list.
October 9, 2025
Half-hearted and sub-literate short story.
June 28, 2013
Oh my! Last year Hartwell released the amazing and outrageously bold novel Atom Heart John Beloved and the more sedate but quite moving short story Jimmy. This year he has done the opposite. His new novel Nathan's Story, even though it has characters from Atom Heart, reminds me more of the style of Jimmy, while Hartwell's new short story, Michael, is more like Atom Heart. It's extremely funny and a very cute story, and wildly imaginative like Atom Heart.
November 24, 2014
Perhaps the funniest story I've ever read, and it even has those beautiful Luke Hartwell characters to love while you're laughing. All of Hartwell's usual eroticism is here, too. How he fit that in with all the humor I'll never know, but it sure makes for an enjoyable read. Just brilliant.
November 7, 2013
A fun and short read
January 31, 2014
3.75*
May 6, 2015
Ridiculously cute. I smiled from start to end...
September 10, 2019
This story is wonderful. Its achievement as a wonderful bit of writing rests on several considerations that I would like to quickly go into.
First it is a short story, a very short story. This means that the author is able to focus on a very specific time and set of actions between two people.
Second, the writing is a very honest portrayal of the sexual and emotional obsessions of a young gay man. Here I'm using the word obsession not in a clinical sense, but as a casual way to describe an emotional focus.
Third, this is a gay man writing about the emotionality, desire for sex, and desire for love found in other gay men. This is important since most genre gay fiction is written by women for a female audience.
In this short story, gay male sexuality and emotionality is not a minstrel show created for the titillation of a female audience. That alone makes a heck of a difference in the way the story is told.
I purchased a story a bit on a dare since I had already read a longer book written by the same author. In that previous encounter, I was dissatisfied by the author's inability to focus on the type of story he wanted to tell.
I was also a bit concerned about the way interpersonal violence was casually introduced into the story. I thought the writing lacked maturity. Nonetheless, I was a fan of the way the author realistically portrayed physical intimacy between two young adults.
Maybe shorter works of fiction play to Luke Hartwell's strengths and sidesteps his weaknesses as an author. I do hope that someday this author is able to put together 300 pages of fiction that are as tightly wound, realistic, and compelling as this short story is.
First it is a short story, a very short story. This means that the author is able to focus on a very specific time and set of actions between two people.
Second, the writing is a very honest portrayal of the sexual and emotional obsessions of a young gay man. Here I'm using the word obsession not in a clinical sense, but as a casual way to describe an emotional focus.
Third, this is a gay man writing about the emotionality, desire for sex, and desire for love found in other gay men. This is important since most genre gay fiction is written by women for a female audience.
In this short story, gay male sexuality and emotionality is not a minstrel show created for the titillation of a female audience. That alone makes a heck of a difference in the way the story is told.
I purchased a story a bit on a dare since I had already read a longer book written by the same author. In that previous encounter, I was dissatisfied by the author's inability to focus on the type of story he wanted to tell.
I was also a bit concerned about the way interpersonal violence was casually introduced into the story. I thought the writing lacked maturity. Nonetheless, I was a fan of the way the author realistically portrayed physical intimacy between two young adults.
Maybe shorter works of fiction play to Luke Hartwell's strengths and sidesteps his weaknesses as an author. I do hope that someday this author is able to put together 300 pages of fiction that are as tightly wound, realistic, and compelling as this short story is.
May 2, 2018
I was a tad disappointed in this one; "Jimmy" was so moving and fun, while this one is very sexual, but creepy in the sense that the main narrator fantasizes about his crush to a VERY creepy extent. Not a fan of this one.
April 11, 2014
4.5 stars
December 16, 2016
Bit expensive for very thin content. I really liked the idea and the first few segments - enough to purchase based on the sample - but it grew repetitive and dull mid-way.
August 15, 2013
Fun, very well-written, refreshing short story, made me smile so much, loved it.
April 2, 2017
Luke's writing is so refreshing. It's like he knows how to write about people's big bad cravings and not make them loom as something surreptitious and unkind in the scheme of life. His characters are flawed but equally honest.
Micheal is a story of one guy binging on his fellow class mate. Pretty easy stuff. Right? But the way Ben craves Micheal... short and dirty cute.
Micheal is a story of one guy binging on his fellow class mate. Pretty easy stuff. Right? But the way Ben craves Micheal... short and dirty cute.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews