My Worst Date

by David Leddick

From the outside, Hugo wouldn't strike anyone as remarkable. In fact, he is much the same as any other sixteen-year-old in South Beach, Miami. He lives with his single mother, hangs out with his best friend, spends time at the beach, is secretly seeing someone his mother definitely wouldn't approve of him seeing, and, while he finishes high school, he is working a part-time job to save money for college.
But Hugo is anything but a typical sixteen-year-old. His part-time job is not at the local pizza place like he told his mother, but rather at a local gay club, where he works as a go-go boy. And the person he is seeing on the sly is a much older man, one Glenn Elliot Paul, whom Hugo met when he walked into his mother's real estate office. And to make it that much worse, Glenn is also dating Hugo's mother.
In the coming year, Hugo will finally learn the truth behind long-held family secrets, brush up against a kind of fame and fortune, and carry on an increasingly difficult affair with his mother's boyfriend. Not wanting to hurt his mother, and equally unwilling to give up Glenn, Hugo is about to experience his best, his worst, and definitely his strangest year.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Gay, Gay Fiction

259 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

David Leddick is the author of several novels as well as several highly-regarded art photography books. His novels include "My Worst Date," "Never Eat In," "The Sex Squad," "The Handsomest Man in the World," and his art compilations include "The Male Nude", "Secrets of the Chorus" which was mounted in a concert production in 2003 and is at work on two other musicals. Leddick was formerly worldwide creative director for L'Oreal and Revlon. He divides his time among homes in Miami Beach, Paris and Montevideo.

Reviews

[Manly Manster · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a plot focused book. There is no strong build-up toward conflict or resolution between the characters.

It features a son who dates the same man as his mom, but the mom does not know. What I didn't really understand was why the son was ok doing this when he didn't dislike his mom. They had a close relationship, but he didn't feel any desire to tell the mother that the man was sleeping around on her, or to stop his relationship with the man because of concern/respect for his mom.

There was no internal soul searching about why the characters were doing what they were doing. They were just doing it.

(In a more 'plot focused' book you would wait for the part where the secret is revealed and everything changes because of it. That is not how this book ends.)

[Karl Kraus · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okayish poolside read with some quirks. The basic premise is handled well enough: 16- to 17-year-old Hugo is having an affair with a guy who is in turn having an affair with Hugo's mom; the story is told mostly from Hugo's perspective. And yet it's strange how nobody bats an eyelash over what is statutory rape. For that matter, Hugo and his high school chums never have any trouble getting into bars, to say nothing of his getting a job as a go-go dancer . . . but I suppose that happens frequently enough in real life, or at least did back in the 1990s. For all everyone seems to be worried about HIV, there are more than a few instances of obviously unprotected anal sex . . . but then, I suppose real life is like that too, seeing as the virus is still very much with us. Even more curious is how we don't find out, and nobody seems to notice, how Hugo's friend Myrtle Beach/Fred is black until page 216 (out of 259). Oh, and there are too many Freds in the novel. Some plot twists seem to be doldrums in the narrative flow: the whole Mr. Korman bit could've been cut out without anyone's noticing, and the conference he has with Hugo is embarrassingly lurchy, and not just for the participants. But Leddick does seem to have a good understanding of character (Hugo's and his mother's, at least); the climactic hurricane scenes are well enough executed; and the ending, while hardly unexpected, comes off gracefully.

Three stars.

[Sergio Caredda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Più noto per le sue splendide raccolte d’arte e fotografia, in questo esordio narrativo David Leddick affronta la crescita di un ragazzo, Hugo, in una Miami quai romantica. Una storia in cui si intrecciano amori diversi, e si alternano diversi punti di vista nella narrazione che rendono il libro piacevole.

[Jordan Lombardo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t even finish this one 😑

[Rory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two of my favorite narrators ever, a plot of charm and witty and believabilty, something for everyone and one of my favorite passages of all time....

Not for the light of heart

[Juliane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange. Graphic.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does a great job portraying the mind of a young gay teen especially with regard to choices we make while young and inexperienced. A fun read for young adults/teens.

[Owen M · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was the most out of pocket book i have ever read in my life

[Wally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books likes like trawsh (which is still a great thing), but reads like wisdom.