What do you think?
Rate this book
Finding Pluck
First Prize Winner of the William Faulkner Literary Award
Reviewed and "highly recommended" by American Library Association http://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/boo...
It is 1995 in North Carolina and high-school student Taylor Hanes is struggling to escape his small-minded dying textile town. He finds his ticket out by being awarded a full-ride Gay and Lesbian Equality Scholarship to a state university. Problem is, he isn’t gay. He lied on the application. Abruptly, he is shocked by hometown intolerance, and worse yet, he awakens the wrath of the scholarship’s long dead benefactor.
Reviewed and "highly recommended" by American Library Association http://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/boo...
It is 1995 in North Carolina and high-school student Taylor Hanes is struggling to escape his small-minded dying textile town. He finds his ticket out by being awarded a full-ride Gay and Lesbian Equality Scholarship to a state university. Problem is, he isn’t gay. He lied on the application. Abruptly, he is shocked by hometown intolerance, and worse yet, he awakens the wrath of the scholarship’s long dead benefactor.
- GenresFiction
410 pages, Paperback
First published February 17, 2015
2 people are currently reading
312 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 13, 2015
I received a free Kindle edition of Finding Pluck in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my opinion of this novel in any way.
Finding Pluck is an imaginative coming-of-age story unlike any other. Skilfully interweaving the stories of two young men living in the American South during different eras--Taylor during the 1990s and Bernard during the 1920s--author Peter Difatta unfolds an engrossing tale. Comic and serious in turns, Finding Pluck deals with issues such as prejudice, betrayal, friendship, love, fairness, sexuality, honesty, bravery, and accountability.
After a farcically perilous flight--in an early dilapidated plane flown by an inebriated pilot--over the University of North Carolina's grounds, the wing rider is accused by school authorities of showing "pluck," by which they mean impudence. "Pluck," however, is also synonymous with adventurousness and heroic daring; hence, it becomes the sobriquet affectionately conferred by his fellow students on Bernard's lover Damien, the unidentified--by the authorities, at least--daredevil.
The elusory nature of morality is as slippery as the definition of pluck, and both Bernard and Taylor grapple with what morality means to them. During the Roaring Twenties, despite that decade's rejection of many traditional moral standards, Bernard initially leads a private and solitary life due to the ignominy of being gay. In 1995, Taylor falsely alleges he's gay rather than admit to his father that he lied to obtain a scholarship-- ironically an endowment by Bernard--for gay students willing to fight discrimination against homosexuals. To become honest about and accepting of who they are, both men require the approbation and support that only discerning good friends with their own eccentricities and shortcomings can provide.
Fresh and imaginative, this eloquently written novel defies categorisation among the genres of popular fiction. Despite addressing homosexuality, Finding Pluck isn't gay fiction; it explores the subject of morality, but it's not a morality tale; although including a witch and ghosts, it's not a typical paranormal novel; while love is found in relationships, it isn't a romance; and the unexplained disappearance of Damien, aka "Pluck," fails to render it merely a mystery or a crime novel. I would also hesitate to categorise it as "new adult" because, although Finding Pluck includes themes such as leaving home, starting college, making friends after high school, sexuality, identity issues, and loss of innocence, it encompasses so much more of interest and value to readers of all ages.
As a bookseller, I have a personal category in which I would include Finding Pluck: "important novels." This category comprises novels that readers consistently find entertaining, intriguing, enriching, and worthy of discussion and debate. (Novels I've privately included this category have deservedly gone on to become award winners, book club favourites, and international bestsellers.) Finding Pluck is such a novel.
Finding Pluck is an imaginative coming-of-age story unlike any other. Skilfully interweaving the stories of two young men living in the American South during different eras--Taylor during the 1990s and Bernard during the 1920s--author Peter Difatta unfolds an engrossing tale. Comic and serious in turns, Finding Pluck deals with issues such as prejudice, betrayal, friendship, love, fairness, sexuality, honesty, bravery, and accountability.
After a farcically perilous flight--in an early dilapidated plane flown by an inebriated pilot--over the University of North Carolina's grounds, the wing rider is accused by school authorities of showing "pluck," by which they mean impudence. "Pluck," however, is also synonymous with adventurousness and heroic daring; hence, it becomes the sobriquet affectionately conferred by his fellow students on Bernard's lover Damien, the unidentified--by the authorities, at least--daredevil.
The elusory nature of morality is as slippery as the definition of pluck, and both Bernard and Taylor grapple with what morality means to them. During the Roaring Twenties, despite that decade's rejection of many traditional moral standards, Bernard initially leads a private and solitary life due to the ignominy of being gay. In 1995, Taylor falsely alleges he's gay rather than admit to his father that he lied to obtain a scholarship-- ironically an endowment by Bernard--for gay students willing to fight discrimination against homosexuals. To become honest about and accepting of who they are, both men require the approbation and support that only discerning good friends with their own eccentricities and shortcomings can provide.
Fresh and imaginative, this eloquently written novel defies categorisation among the genres of popular fiction. Despite addressing homosexuality, Finding Pluck isn't gay fiction; it explores the subject of morality, but it's not a morality tale; although including a witch and ghosts, it's not a typical paranormal novel; while love is found in relationships, it isn't a romance; and the unexplained disappearance of Damien, aka "Pluck," fails to render it merely a mystery or a crime novel. I would also hesitate to categorise it as "new adult" because, although Finding Pluck includes themes such as leaving home, starting college, making friends after high school, sexuality, identity issues, and loss of innocence, it encompasses so much more of interest and value to readers of all ages.
As a bookseller, I have a personal category in which I would include Finding Pluck: "important novels." This category comprises novels that readers consistently find entertaining, intriguing, enriching, and worthy of discussion and debate. (Novels I've privately included this category have deservedly gone on to become award winners, book club favourites, and international bestsellers.) Finding Pluck is such a novel.
October 29, 2017
Peter Difatta's Finding Pluck is a throwback in more senses than one. It's a period novel with more than one period - half this university-based story is set during the 1995-1996 school year, and the other half is a parallel action set during the 1927-1928 school year. But it's also a throwback because it seems more akin to the popular fiction of earlier generations than to most of what gets published today. The tone, the stately march of the sentences, is dignified, even dare I say genteel, and one might say the same of the characters. This is a very NICE book, even though the core topics are controversy-baiting - gay rights and religious intolerance.
It's a neat trick, and the book is a smooth, professional performance. Finding Pluck will charm plenty of readers, and is about as reading-group-friendly a title as I have come across lately. It won the William Faulkner Literary Award given by Faulkner's home town of New Albany, Mississippi. The judges of that book described Finding Pluck as "pleasing," which indeed it is, and further noted that it "handles well a sophisticated narrative structure," also basically true.
You undoubtedly feel a "But..." coming up, and I can't say you're wrong. Finding Pluck has considerable merit, yet it left me a little cool in the final analysis.
There is a lot going on in Finding Pluck, which in addition to the double-period structure and shifts between third and first person, is structured as an earnest social agenda novel AND a pop supernatural novel. It is hard to discuss all those aspects of the performance simultaneously, so let me try to do so separately, without giving away too much of the plot.
The 1927-1928 chapters, focused on a budding friendship between University of North Carolina students Bernard Pembroke and Damien Holdrich, come across as more convincing than the 1995-1996 chapters, which center on the life of UNC freshman Taylor Hanes, a boy from a fading mill-town who has committed a subterfuge in order to receive a full scholarship.
I think this contrast in effectiveness is based on the relative distances in time more than anything else. We know 1995, and Difatta's version of it seemed off to me. We don't know 1927 directly, and therefore Difatta's F. Scott Fitzgerald Lite take on it seems passable enough.
The relationship between Bernard (shy, stuttering) and Damien (bold, confident) is very akin to that between Gene and Finny in John Knowles' classic prep school novel A Separate Peace, but with the homo-eroticism less sub-textual than in the earlier book.
In the modern chapters, Taylor Hanes is a likeable protagonist, but it could be that his creator likes him a bit TOO much, because he keeps letting him off the hook. Taylor is punished in due course for his subterfuge, but is then eventually re-rewarded for it. He initially gets a B minus on a paper-and-project that really DESERVES a B minus (the teacher in me notes), but then the grade is adjusted upward to an A because Taylor's heart is in the right place.
These chapters depend on Taylor's making friends, among both fellow students and adults, who will assist him in figuring out a mystery with a paranormal component. Assist him they do - they all come on board VERY swiftly, and barely pause over questions of belief in ghosts or other manifestations of the beyond - but the overall effect is too much like that of Hardy Boys and Friends. Let's get to the bottom of this, guys!
As a supernatural novel, Finding Pluck plugs into the standard narrative of ghosts having unfinished business that prevents them from going over to the "other side." This material is distinctly second-hand, by way of Hollywood and earlier popular novels.
As a social agenda novel - and I quite share its mission of respect for gay rights - Finding Pluck overloads its case by setting up straw men such as a Fred Phelps-esque crazy-Christian church that figures in both time-frames. The sense of homosexuality in the story is extremely attenuated and disembodied, and could barely give offense to your conservative grandmother. When Bernard and Damien start sleeping together, it happens so much "in between chapters" that it may take you a while to figure it out. The joys of the erotic do not put in an on-stage appearance here.
Popular narratives are often, let's face it, somewhat fantastic in effect, because the "reality" they put into play is idealized and glamorized. Damien, like any fictional romantic object, is a shade too perfectly what Bernard needs to pull him out of his shell. Taylor and his friends are just slightly too concerned and noble and right-thinking. The Christians are caricatures - not one without some basis in reality, I'll readily admit, but awfully convenient for the story. (They go completely batshit at the climax of the 1920s chapters, and the denouement of a well-known British cult horror movie of the 1970s puts in an unexpected WTF guest appearance.)
The rigging of the game shows up most clearly, however, in the chronology. We are told that Bernard Pembroke inherited the family business and "got very involved with minority groups to help their cause, particularly speaking out on equal rights for gays and lesbians" - this would have been in the 1950s - and before his death circa 1970 set up a UNC scholarship for self-avowed gay and lesbian students.
Now THIS is fantastical. No industrialists anywhere in the world were speaking up on behalf of gays and lesbians in the 1950s. No one was endowing full scholarships for gay and lesbian students in the late 1960s, nor would an institution such as UNC have agreed to administer one for at least another 20, probably 30 years. The timing is all off, yet the reader's suspension of disbelief depends on it.
Difatta mentions in an afterword that "Several of my beta readers asked me if all the historical and background information in Finding Pluck was true," and goes on to state that all the historical examples given of mistreatment of gays and lesbians are factual, as indeed they are. But he doesn't address the issue of whether the events in his narrative would have been POSSIBLE in the real world. They would not. That's damning.
Another example: A key thematic event in the 1920s chapters is Damien's taking Bernard to hear an on-campus concert of Mahler's Second Symphony, which affects them both greatly. Difatta uses a quotation from the text of the vocal fifth movement as a closing epigram.
I hate to rain on this parade, BUT: Mahler was in eclipse in the United States (and most everywhere) from his death in 1911 until the 1960s. During the 1920s, the Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg performed a few Mahler works with the New York Philharmonic; otherwise his music was scarcely known in America.
And the Second is one of the largest of Mahler's works: it lasts 90 minutes, calls for a HUGE orchestra and chorus and soloists, and is one of the most challenging works to play in the entire classical repertoire. It would not have been played by a student orchestra in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1927-1928.
These facts are easily checked, and if you are going to use Mahler as a linchpin in your story, you should take care that readers familiar with Mahler are not going to automatically balk at your ahistoricity. This is not just niggling on my part - it speaks to a cavalier handling of reality that I started to feel on almost every page of Finding Pluck.
Another example: The handling of Taylor Hanes' collegiate financial aid situation is factually unsatisfactory - his father would have had to be involved at every stage, filling out forms and submitting documents; student loans would necessarily have been discussed at an early stage. None of that happens.
There is a story about the young John Gunther, Jr., in his father's famous memoir of him, Death Be Not Proud, that the lad is offered one of Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd novels about a globe-trotting adventurer, and replies, "I prefer my Superman straight." That's what I feel about Finding Pluck - that if an author is going to make such a hash of the real world, it would be better to make the setting fantastic altogether, or go alternate-reality or something, to cut gripers like me off.
The novel is a pleasant read but ONLY if one does not ask questions of the text, and that's simply not my favorite sort of novel.
It's a neat trick, and the book is a smooth, professional performance. Finding Pluck will charm plenty of readers, and is about as reading-group-friendly a title as I have come across lately. It won the William Faulkner Literary Award given by Faulkner's home town of New Albany, Mississippi. The judges of that book described Finding Pluck as "pleasing," which indeed it is, and further noted that it "handles well a sophisticated narrative structure," also basically true.
You undoubtedly feel a "But..." coming up, and I can't say you're wrong. Finding Pluck has considerable merit, yet it left me a little cool in the final analysis.
There is a lot going on in Finding Pluck, which in addition to the double-period structure and shifts between third and first person, is structured as an earnest social agenda novel AND a pop supernatural novel. It is hard to discuss all those aspects of the performance simultaneously, so let me try to do so separately, without giving away too much of the plot.
The 1927-1928 chapters, focused on a budding friendship between University of North Carolina students Bernard Pembroke and Damien Holdrich, come across as more convincing than the 1995-1996 chapters, which center on the life of UNC freshman Taylor Hanes, a boy from a fading mill-town who has committed a subterfuge in order to receive a full scholarship.
I think this contrast in effectiveness is based on the relative distances in time more than anything else. We know 1995, and Difatta's version of it seemed off to me. We don't know 1927 directly, and therefore Difatta's F. Scott Fitzgerald Lite take on it seems passable enough.
The relationship between Bernard (shy, stuttering) and Damien (bold, confident) is very akin to that between Gene and Finny in John Knowles' classic prep school novel A Separate Peace, but with the homo-eroticism less sub-textual than in the earlier book.
In the modern chapters, Taylor Hanes is a likeable protagonist, but it could be that his creator likes him a bit TOO much, because he keeps letting him off the hook. Taylor is punished in due course for his subterfuge, but is then eventually re-rewarded for it. He initially gets a B minus on a paper-and-project that really DESERVES a B minus (the teacher in me notes), but then the grade is adjusted upward to an A because Taylor's heart is in the right place.
These chapters depend on Taylor's making friends, among both fellow students and adults, who will assist him in figuring out a mystery with a paranormal component. Assist him they do - they all come on board VERY swiftly, and barely pause over questions of belief in ghosts or other manifestations of the beyond - but the overall effect is too much like that of Hardy Boys and Friends. Let's get to the bottom of this, guys!
As a supernatural novel, Finding Pluck plugs into the standard narrative of ghosts having unfinished business that prevents them from going over to the "other side." This material is distinctly second-hand, by way of Hollywood and earlier popular novels.
As a social agenda novel - and I quite share its mission of respect for gay rights - Finding Pluck overloads its case by setting up straw men such as a Fred Phelps-esque crazy-Christian church that figures in both time-frames. The sense of homosexuality in the story is extremely attenuated and disembodied, and could barely give offense to your conservative grandmother. When Bernard and Damien start sleeping together, it happens so much "in between chapters" that it may take you a while to figure it out. The joys of the erotic do not put in an on-stage appearance here.
Popular narratives are often, let's face it, somewhat fantastic in effect, because the "reality" they put into play is idealized and glamorized. Damien, like any fictional romantic object, is a shade too perfectly what Bernard needs to pull him out of his shell. Taylor and his friends are just slightly too concerned and noble and right-thinking. The Christians are caricatures - not one without some basis in reality, I'll readily admit, but awfully convenient for the story. (They go completely batshit at the climax of the 1920s chapters, and the denouement of a well-known British cult horror movie of the 1970s puts in an unexpected WTF guest appearance.)
The rigging of the game shows up most clearly, however, in the chronology. We are told that Bernard Pembroke inherited the family business and "got very involved with minority groups to help their cause, particularly speaking out on equal rights for gays and lesbians" - this would have been in the 1950s - and before his death circa 1970 set up a UNC scholarship for self-avowed gay and lesbian students.
Now THIS is fantastical. No industrialists anywhere in the world were speaking up on behalf of gays and lesbians in the 1950s. No one was endowing full scholarships for gay and lesbian students in the late 1960s, nor would an institution such as UNC have agreed to administer one for at least another 20, probably 30 years. The timing is all off, yet the reader's suspension of disbelief depends on it.
Difatta mentions in an afterword that "Several of my beta readers asked me if all the historical and background information in Finding Pluck was true," and goes on to state that all the historical examples given of mistreatment of gays and lesbians are factual, as indeed they are. But he doesn't address the issue of whether the events in his narrative would have been POSSIBLE in the real world. They would not. That's damning.
Another example: A key thematic event in the 1920s chapters is Damien's taking Bernard to hear an on-campus concert of Mahler's Second Symphony, which affects them both greatly. Difatta uses a quotation from the text of the vocal fifth movement as a closing epigram.
I hate to rain on this parade, BUT: Mahler was in eclipse in the United States (and most everywhere) from his death in 1911 until the 1960s. During the 1920s, the Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg performed a few Mahler works with the New York Philharmonic; otherwise his music was scarcely known in America.
And the Second is one of the largest of Mahler's works: it lasts 90 minutes, calls for a HUGE orchestra and chorus and soloists, and is one of the most challenging works to play in the entire classical repertoire. It would not have been played by a student orchestra in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1927-1928.
These facts are easily checked, and if you are going to use Mahler as a linchpin in your story, you should take care that readers familiar with Mahler are not going to automatically balk at your ahistoricity. This is not just niggling on my part - it speaks to a cavalier handling of reality that I started to feel on almost every page of Finding Pluck.
Another example: The handling of Taylor Hanes' collegiate financial aid situation is factually unsatisfactory - his father would have had to be involved at every stage, filling out forms and submitting documents; student loans would necessarily have been discussed at an early stage. None of that happens.
There is a story about the young John Gunther, Jr., in his father's famous memoir of him, Death Be Not Proud, that the lad is offered one of Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd novels about a globe-trotting adventurer, and replies, "I prefer my Superman straight." That's what I feel about Finding Pluck - that if an author is going to make such a hash of the real world, it would be better to make the setting fantastic altogether, or go alternate-reality or something, to cut gripers like me off.
The novel is a pleasant read but ONLY if one does not ask questions of the text, and that's simply not my favorite sort of novel.
September 13, 2015
Important and moving, Peter DiFatta's "Finding Pluck" is a unique tale chronicling two vastly different classical ages but underlining that it is indeed the human condition that remains unchanged. The novel finds Taylor Hanes unhappy and trying to survive in the small town he calls home. Within this town, discrimination and ignorant mindsets prevail, which, unfortunately for Taylor, makes this very uncomfortable with him when he is awarded the Pluck Gay and Lesbian Equality Scholarship to a state university. But Taylor isn't gay. Cue the obstacles.
The town is not welcoming of his documented preferences, but Taylor can't, nor does he want to, come clean because he so desperately needs to get out of North Carolina. Further to this, the benefactor of the Pluck Award is, in DiFatta's words, "unsettled spirit". Taylor, alongside with some friends, decide to investigate why this is so, propelling the narrative to the Jazz Age where Barnard Pembroke, the benefactor mentioned, has his life presented for the reader.
What transpires is a story that transcends decades and prejudices that both build, and de-evolve, a society. DiFatta is skilled at presenting a wide array of viewpoints of what is considered taboo in society. His writing is accessible and succinct, allowing the reader to make up their own mind as to the depicted characters motivations and growth. A good read, through and through.
Like this review? Read more like it at www.readingotherpeople.com
The town is not welcoming of his documented preferences, but Taylor can't, nor does he want to, come clean because he so desperately needs to get out of North Carolina. Further to this, the benefactor of the Pluck Award is, in DiFatta's words, "unsettled spirit". Taylor, alongside with some friends, decide to investigate why this is so, propelling the narrative to the Jazz Age where Barnard Pembroke, the benefactor mentioned, has his life presented for the reader.
What transpires is a story that transcends decades and prejudices that both build, and de-evolve, a society. DiFatta is skilled at presenting a wide array of viewpoints of what is considered taboo in society. His writing is accessible and succinct, allowing the reader to make up their own mind as to the depicted characters motivations and growth. A good read, through and through.
Like this review? Read more like it at www.readingotherpeople.com
July 6, 2015
I received a PC copy of this book from the author because I asked to win a copy through Goodreads.com, he asked for a honest review in return.
I would like to recommend this book as a smart and insightful read. I found the characters well developed and interesting to follow during the story. While I loved some of the plot to this work...I found some things not developed as much as possible. But this is probably due to editing. But I did so much like the ideas and concept that went into this authors work. I do not wish to tell or retell the story in this review, because you can read it for yourself. see review below:
I would highly recommend this work for your summer and fall reading list and encourage you to pick up a copy.
Well done Author Peter Difatta, I await your next book, with excitement and as to were your works will climb.
I would like to recommend this book as a smart and insightful read. I found the characters well developed and interesting to follow during the story. While I loved some of the plot to this work...I found some things not developed as much as possible. But this is probably due to editing. But I did so much like the ideas and concept that went into this authors work. I do not wish to tell or retell the story in this review, because you can read it for yourself. see review below:
I would highly recommend this work for your summer and fall reading list and encourage you to pick up a copy.
Well done Author Peter Difatta, I await your next book, with excitement and as to were your works will climb.
June 23, 2015
This book is set in 1995 in North Carolina. Tayolr Hanes applied for a scholarship and he was admitted on the premise he was gay, which is is not. So of course when he gets to the college people give him a hard time because they do not take to gay people very well. The book then takes a rather unique and brilliant turn when the school's gay benefactor's ghost shows up. So it really two stories in one, the Roaring Twenties bigotary and Taylor Hanes experiences. Taylor has to grow and deal with the truth, and other grownup issues. Very excellent plot and well written. Loved it.
April 13, 2015
I won a copy of this book on Goodreads. Finding Pluck was an enjoyable read. A good story with an interesting message.
December 14, 2015
Finding Pluck by Peter Difatta: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwid... 2015 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)
November 26, 2018
Timely book for today's social challenges
As the main character Taylor illustrates, the challenge of combating discrimination of all sorts is the responsibility of everyone, not just the minority suffering from the discrimination. Unfortunately the book failed to emphasize the the worst discrimination is not that practiced by extremists but rather that practiced by regular individuals who don't truly question and seek to understand those who are different
As the main character Taylor illustrates, the challenge of combating discrimination of all sorts is the responsibility of everyone, not just the minority suffering from the discrimination. Unfortunately the book failed to emphasize the the worst discrimination is not that practiced by extremists but rather that practiced by regular individuals who don't truly question and seek to understand those who are different
January 15, 2021
audible:This was an excellent story!I did not want to stop listening to it.A college bound student can not find a scholarship to fit his circumstances until an odd one comes up.He will have to pretend to be gay.He does a lousy job at this.I guess that was just how the story went.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
February 4, 2018
Enjoyed this well written book!
October 8, 2015
It was clear from the blurb that 'Finding Pluck' would be unlike any book I've previously picked up, and the premise intrigued me. I've read many stories, and will doubtless read many more, where a young man feels forced to hide his homosexuality. This is the first novel I've come across, however, which turns this concept on its head, featuring a straight hero who becomes embroiled in the pretence of being gay. The author combines this with witchcraft, a restless ghost and the interweaving of past and present to create something wholly unique.
Taylor had no choice. With his mom seriously ill and his dad struggling to support her, there is no money left over to send him to college. His only hope lies in an equality scholarship for gay and lesbian students. So Taylor might not be gay, but lying about his sexuality seems a small sacrifice to make if it pays his way through college. Yet, nothing prepares him for the prejudice he encounters from the residents of his small hometown, people Taylor has known all his life, and the last thing he expects is that his deception will mark him out as the target for a wrathful spirit.
Once at college, Taylor meets a host of interesting characters from a self-professed witch for whom he experiences an instant attraction, to a handsome actor with a preference for older men. With their help, Taylor works to uncover the mystery that surrounds the haunting. The search leads them to delve into the life of Bernard Pembroke, the long-dead benefactor behind Taylor's scholarship, who attended the university seventy years before. Gradually, they piece together the events of Bernard's college days, and reveal the truth about his ill-fated romance with his close friend Damian.
One of the best aspects of this book, I think, is the way Peter Difatta develops the hero's character. Taylor starts out with little knowledge or understanding of the LGBT community, but as the story progresses, he comes to feel a genuine empathy and the desire to fight for equality. What I enjoyed most about this novel though were the chapters set in the past. I really liked the subtlety with which Bernard's relationship with Damian blossoms, as well as the glimpse the author offers us into college life in the 1920s. If you're seeking an unusual read, you may well want to give this a try.
Written for Rainbow Book Reviews and Boys on the Brink
Taylor had no choice. With his mom seriously ill and his dad struggling to support her, there is no money left over to send him to college. His only hope lies in an equality scholarship for gay and lesbian students. So Taylor might not be gay, but lying about his sexuality seems a small sacrifice to make if it pays his way through college. Yet, nothing prepares him for the prejudice he encounters from the residents of his small hometown, people Taylor has known all his life, and the last thing he expects is that his deception will mark him out as the target for a wrathful spirit.
Once at college, Taylor meets a host of interesting characters from a self-professed witch for whom he experiences an instant attraction, to a handsome actor with a preference for older men. With their help, Taylor works to uncover the mystery that surrounds the haunting. The search leads them to delve into the life of Bernard Pembroke, the long-dead benefactor behind Taylor's scholarship, who attended the university seventy years before. Gradually, they piece together the events of Bernard's college days, and reveal the truth about his ill-fated romance with his close friend Damian.
One of the best aspects of this book, I think, is the way Peter Difatta develops the hero's character. Taylor starts out with little knowledge or understanding of the LGBT community, but as the story progresses, he comes to feel a genuine empathy and the desire to fight for equality. What I enjoyed most about this novel though were the chapters set in the past. I really liked the subtlety with which Bernard's relationship with Damian blossoms, as well as the glimpse the author offers us into college life in the 1920s. If you're seeking an unusual read, you may well want to give this a try.
Written for Rainbow Book Reviews and Boys on the Brink
March 4, 2016
I was contacted by Peter Difatta, the author of Finding Pluck, upon his seeing my interest in this book. He'd very graciously asked if I'd mind giving an honest review if he sent an ecopy. The following is my best attempt at reviewing a book filled with so many emotions, mere words don't seem adequate.
Finding Pluck was engaging, drawing me in with the unique storyline. As I read, I found myself engrossed, trying to figure out the mystery involved, which at times left me breathless from the emotional overload. Finding Pluck is a fictitious journey with facts sprinkled in, and a heartfelt message that touches the soul. I accidentally stumbled upon this book on goodreads, and I'm so glad I did. Peter's tale has left me with a yearning for change, a craving for justice & true equality, and such overwhelming sympathy. This is definitely a story that will stay with me.
Finding Pluck was engaging, drawing me in with the unique storyline. As I read, I found myself engrossed, trying to figure out the mystery involved, which at times left me breathless from the emotional overload. Finding Pluck is a fictitious journey with facts sprinkled in, and a heartfelt message that touches the soul. I accidentally stumbled upon this book on goodreads, and I'm so glad I did. Peter's tale has left me with a yearning for change, a craving for justice & true equality, and such overwhelming sympathy. This is definitely a story that will stay with me.
September 5, 2015
‘Finding Pluck’ by Peter Difatta was an enjoyable read. Taylor Hanes who spent his whole life in a dying textile town applied for a scholarship under the pretense that he was gay, which he isn’t. Though out the book Taylor experience firsthand his hometown’s intolerance toward gay people, as well as some on campus.
As a character I thought that Taylor was a likeable character. The only problem that I had with him was that he was too likeable to the point where I feel like in some cases he got off way too easy.
I loved the relationship between Bernard and Damien. Sometime being subtle is better than the in your face approach some authors tend to do.
What I did not expect from this book was the paranormal aspect of it. It was nice in how it tied Taylor’s and Bernard’s story together, but that was about it.
Overall, it was still a good book.
As a character I thought that Taylor was a likeable character. The only problem that I had with him was that he was too likeable to the point where I feel like in some cases he got off way too easy.
I loved the relationship between Bernard and Damien. Sometime being subtle is better than the in your face approach some authors tend to do.
What I did not expect from this book was the paranormal aspect of it. It was nice in how it tied Taylor’s and Bernard’s story together, but that was about it.
Overall, it was still a good book.
July 23, 2015
'Finding Pluck' by Peter Difatta is a thoroughly enjoyable book. I'm definitely putting it on my list of all time favorites! This book has a little bit of everything including two romances and a ghost. There are five main characters and they are developed so well that you'll connect to all of them. I know I did.
Difatta does a great job of story telling by going from the 1920's era to 1995 using alternating chapters. It's a story of love, loss, morality and prejudice. Would I recommend it? Most definitely! If you miss this book it's your loss.
I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest, unbiased review and I'm thankful for the opportunity to have read such a fine book.
Difatta does a great job of story telling by going from the 1920's era to 1995 using alternating chapters. It's a story of love, loss, morality and prejudice. Would I recommend it? Most definitely! If you miss this book it's your loss.
I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest, unbiased review and I'm thankful for the opportunity to have read such a fine book.
October 18, 2015
I Searched for You
A nice use of parallel story lines... one set in the past and one a few years ago.
Ghosts and seances. Fraud and speakeasies. Religious fanatics and cults. Betrayal and murder.
Interspersed with the tale of a love that time will not diminish.
A nice use of parallel story lines... one set in the past and one a few years ago.
Ghosts and seances. Fraud and speakeasies. Religious fanatics and cults. Betrayal and murder.
Interspersed with the tale of a love that time will not diminish.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews