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Pride
“Where are you going, Liam? You're always going somewhere. I feel as if I don’t know you anymore.”
“I told you, Mum, I’m going for a pizza then seeing a film with a friend.”
But Liam is not having pizza or seeing a film; he’s going to his first Gay Pride march.
Liam has always felt different in a way he couldn’t quite pinpoint… until now. He’s been a caterpillar all his life and his parents want him to stay that way. But Liam wants to be a butterfly.
A tender, funny and moving novella from critically-acclaimed author Jonathan Hill.
“I told you, Mum, I’m going for a pizza then seeing a film with a friend.”
But Liam is not having pizza or seeing a film; he’s going to his first Gay Pride march.
Liam has always felt different in a way he couldn’t quite pinpoint… until now. He’s been a caterpillar all his life and his parents want him to stay that way. But Liam wants to be a butterfly.
A tender, funny and moving novella from critically-acclaimed author Jonathan Hill.
152 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 2015
1 person is currently reading
522 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Hill
25 books76 followersJonathan Hill is an author from Manchester, UK.
His work isn’t confined to one genre, but he has already published a number of gay literary fiction books to high critical acclaim. His debut novel 'FAG', a hard-hitting story set in an English boarding school in the 1930s, was named as the overall winner in the Self-Published and Small Press 2014 Book Awards.
He has also penned the hit comedy series of Maureen books, in addition to numerous short stories and 100-word drabbles. Jonathan firmly believes that writing should not only entertain but also enhance and change the way readers view the world.
When he’s not writing and working as a pharmacist, he enjoys painting, photography and going to the theatre.
www.jhillwriter.com
www.fagthenovel.com
His work isn’t confined to one genre, but he has already published a number of gay literary fiction books to high critical acclaim. His debut novel 'FAG', a hard-hitting story set in an English boarding school in the 1930s, was named as the overall winner in the Self-Published and Small Press 2014 Book Awards.
He has also penned the hit comedy series of Maureen books, in addition to numerous short stories and 100-word drabbles. Jonathan firmly believes that writing should not only entertain but also enhance and change the way readers view the world.
When he’s not writing and working as a pharmacist, he enjoys painting, photography and going to the theatre.
www.jhillwriter.com
www.fagthenovel.com
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 15, 2015
Jonathan Hill is one of a select group of authors who entices me from my comfort zone of mostly genre fiction with carefully crafted writing and rich characterisation. Whether it be a strange old lady, boys at a boarding school or this latest tale - he hasn't failed to entrance and entertain. After his debut full length novel last year I had high expectations from this latest release and I wasn't disappointed. I don't think it's as stand out as that novel, but it it is still a fine read.
The interesting aspect of the story for me is that it means different things depending on the reader. For me the experiences in the book aren't ones I have encountered, while for others there will be familiar elements that they can compare with their own experience.
The story follows two timelines, the first is Liam as a youth and him attempting to come to terms with his sexuality. Now this can be an emotive subject and in some books come across as quite confrontational or preachy. This isn't the case with Pride, so doesn't act as a barrier to understanding what this man is experiencing. The other perspective is from him as an older man with more wisdom under his belt and provides contrast to his younger self.
As with all of the author's works the writing is exemplary. There is a gentle humour evident as well and together they make this an easy read even while tackling serious topics. I'd recommend this even if it doesn't seem like your type of read as it is quite likely to surprise you.
The interesting aspect of the story for me is that it means different things depending on the reader. For me the experiences in the book aren't ones I have encountered, while for others there will be familiar elements that they can compare with their own experience.
The story follows two timelines, the first is Liam as a youth and him attempting to come to terms with his sexuality. Now this can be an emotive subject and in some books come across as quite confrontational or preachy. This isn't the case with Pride, so doesn't act as a barrier to understanding what this man is experiencing. The other perspective is from him as an older man with more wisdom under his belt and provides contrast to his younger self.
As with all of the author's works the writing is exemplary. There is a gentle humour evident as well and together they make this an easy read even while tackling serious topics. I'd recommend this even if it doesn't seem like your type of read as it is quite likely to surprise you.
February 15, 2015
This novella tells the story of teenaged Liam and his struggle to become the person he knows he is. His family don’t know that he’s left the house to take part in a Gay Pride march in another city, but they find out and he feels sure his dad has been snooping in his bedroom. Over the next couple of years he meets the same group of young men there and feels he has his first true friends but at home, things take a downturn and his mother says something he can’t forgive.
This is a bittersweet story in which, whatever our own past, I’m sure we can all share in Liam’s uncertainty and lack of self-confidence. We’ve all been there. Though we may not be like Liam, we all potentially have a friend or even a child who might and what we say to them and how we say it can make the difference between a squashing boot and an open door. The story is told simply and beautifully and touches on both Pride and pride. I found it uplifting. A great little book with a stunning cover!
This is a bittersweet story in which, whatever our own past, I’m sure we can all share in Liam’s uncertainty and lack of self-confidence. We’ve all been there. Though we may not be like Liam, we all potentially have a friend or even a child who might and what we say to them and how we say it can make the difference between a squashing boot and an open door. The story is told simply and beautifully and touches on both Pride and pride. I found it uplifting. A great little book with a stunning cover!
July 19, 2018
What do you remember most from your first Pride? Are you still making plans for your first Pride? Or you think it is all just a bunch of crap wrapped up in the glittering human rights propaganda?
To teenage boy Liam his first Gay Pride march is everything. Not even traveling by himself to another town and lying to his parents can prevent him to attend it. Because Liam reached the point when he accepted himself for who he was and now he seeks the acceptance of others too.
But is he ready to accept the dire consequences of his actions and coming out to another teenage boy, a stranger to him? Can he embrace the pain and guilt of a caterpillar spreading its rainbow-colored wings as a new butterfly?
Tender is the way and splashed with the right dose of humor with which Jonathan Hill makes us to befriend and love the characters in his novella Pride. It’s a brutally honest and beautifully realistic story which begs for your attention. In other words, a must-read!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan
To teenage boy Liam his first Gay Pride march is everything. Not even traveling by himself to another town and lying to his parents can prevent him to attend it. Because Liam reached the point when he accepted himself for who he was and now he seeks the acceptance of others too.
But is he ready to accept the dire consequences of his actions and coming out to another teenage boy, a stranger to him? Can he embrace the pain and guilt of a caterpillar spreading its rainbow-colored wings as a new butterfly?
Tender is the way and splashed with the right dose of humor with which Jonathan Hill makes us to befriend and love the characters in his novella Pride. It’s a brutally honest and beautifully realistic story which begs for your attention. In other words, a must-read!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan
February 18, 2015
As you would expect from this author, Pride is a very well written novella. Don't let its easy-reading style lead you into thinking it's a simplistic tale. The book works on a number of levels. It tells the story of Liam, an adolescent who is coming-of-age and coming-out. It's a charming story of a young man who meets another and falls in love. There are ups and downs in an ever-changing social whirl but all is resolved in a happy-ever-after ending. On another level Pride is an exploration of the difficulties encountered by a young person who has come to terms with his orientation but is struggling to share the news. The author has explored sensitively some challenging relationships between parents and child. The reactions of others, both those who are empathetic and those who are openly hostile, adds depth to the story and provides the conflicts and tensions which make the book so engaging and interesting. In addition Jonathan Hill has created a story which, although focussed on a young man who is gay, overarches the emotional development of all adolescents. Pride is a paradigm of otherness and the search for inclusion. There is an interesting juxtaposition of narrative intercut with reflections from the older, and wiser, Liam. And it's here where there are hints that all is not quite as happy-ever-after as the young Liam's story suggests. Maybe there is more of this story yet to tell. I thought this was a lovely, beautifully written story and I enjoyed it so much I read it twice. Highly recommended.
May 5, 2015
For long-term fans of Jonathan Hill, Pride comes across as a thematic halfway house between his light-hearted Maureen stories and his much harder-hitting novel released in 2014. For newcomers, this will be a fresh and engaging introduction to his writing.
Like the movie of the same name, Pride looks at what it was like to be gay in early Eighties Britain. But this is a much less political and more personal tale. No matter what your sexuality or viewpoint, we can all empathise with teenage Liam as he struggles to juggle the old-fashioned world of his parents with the scary, colourful lure of a more grown-up life he clearly isn't ready for.
Liam himself is portrayed in a highly detailed and realistic way, to the point where sometimes he is believably unlikable. The writing captures the ebullience of youth when striving to belong to a chosen tribe which, as I'm sure we all remember, isn't always flattering!
There are occasional flash-forwards to Liam's viewpoint from later in his life, but the novella doesn't need them at all. I found teenage Liam's journey intense enough that his adult observations were bordering on intrusive.
This is a captivating story about all the highs and lows of finding yourself when you are young.
Like the movie of the same name, Pride looks at what it was like to be gay in early Eighties Britain. But this is a much less political and more personal tale. No matter what your sexuality or viewpoint, we can all empathise with teenage Liam as he struggles to juggle the old-fashioned world of his parents with the scary, colourful lure of a more grown-up life he clearly isn't ready for.
Liam himself is portrayed in a highly detailed and realistic way, to the point where sometimes he is believably unlikable. The writing captures the ebullience of youth when striving to belong to a chosen tribe which, as I'm sure we all remember, isn't always flattering!
There are occasional flash-forwards to Liam's viewpoint from later in his life, but the novella doesn't need them at all. I found teenage Liam's journey intense enough that his adult observations were bordering on intrusive.
This is a captivating story about all the highs and lows of finding yourself when you are young.
May 18, 2015
Pride
Pride is about a young man trying to find his identity. It’s about his feelings of alienation from the world around him. It is the quest to find himself. This story tells us about Liam’s trip to a Gay Pride March, and the beginning of his journey into adulthood. It tells us of his alienation from his parents, and his subsequent departure from the family home.
I’m sure that many gay men and women will identify with the emotions dealt with within this brilliantly written story, but I feel that many others will also identify with this tale. I certainly did.
There are many diverse reasons why people can feel like outcasts within society, and these are further exacerbated by the hormonal and emotional upheaval of the teenage years. I think this story relates to a much larger audience than just the gay community. It reminds me of an old punk song: ‘Did He Jump’ by the band Zounds.
Who was that on the window ledge?
Did he jump or was he pushed?
He left a note which no one read,
In desperate hands the note just said,
“Never turned my back on society,
Society turned its back on me.
Never tried once to drop out,
I just couldn’t get in from the very start!”
... But enough about the plot. This story is so much more than a clever plot. It is a wonderfully crafted piece of prose, written by a true wordsmith. The story is filled with wry humour and self depreciation. It contains many dark shadows, but also many brilliant rainbows. It was a sheer pleasure to read each and every sentence, and it left me somewhat sad when the story finally ended. It left me wanting more. Not that the story needed more. The ending was a natural conclusion, as was the whole progression of the tale, but it still left me with an inner emptiness upon completing the book.
I feel that Jonathan Hill’s writing came of age with his recent novel: FAG, and this story, although shorter, is no less brilliant.
Pride is about a young man trying to find his identity. It’s about his feelings of alienation from the world around him. It is the quest to find himself. This story tells us about Liam’s trip to a Gay Pride March, and the beginning of his journey into adulthood. It tells us of his alienation from his parents, and his subsequent departure from the family home.
I’m sure that many gay men and women will identify with the emotions dealt with within this brilliantly written story, but I feel that many others will also identify with this tale. I certainly did.
There are many diverse reasons why people can feel like outcasts within society, and these are further exacerbated by the hormonal and emotional upheaval of the teenage years. I think this story relates to a much larger audience than just the gay community. It reminds me of an old punk song: ‘Did He Jump’ by the band Zounds.
Who was that on the window ledge?
Did he jump or was he pushed?
He left a note which no one read,
In desperate hands the note just said,
“Never turned my back on society,
Society turned its back on me.
Never tried once to drop out,
I just couldn’t get in from the very start!”
... But enough about the plot. This story is so much more than a clever plot. It is a wonderfully crafted piece of prose, written by a true wordsmith. The story is filled with wry humour and self depreciation. It contains many dark shadows, but also many brilliant rainbows. It was a sheer pleasure to read each and every sentence, and it left me somewhat sad when the story finally ended. It left me wanting more. Not that the story needed more. The ending was a natural conclusion, as was the whole progression of the tale, but it still left me with an inner emptiness upon completing the book.
I feel that Jonathan Hill’s writing came of age with his recent novel: FAG, and this story, although shorter, is no less brilliant.
June 24, 2015
Pride
By Jonathan Hill
Five stars
A long short story, by a young author of great talent, “Pride” follows the coming out experience of Liam, a fifteen-year-old, during the John Major years in England in the 1990s. I suspect this is a very personal story for Hill, for it fairly shimmers with the rawness of first-hand experience.
This is a beautifully written and told tale. It begins with the tentativeness of an emerging adolescent gay awareness, and carries the reader forward by carefully calibrated leaps, the voice alternating deftly between the third person and a first-person narrator. It is a tale about the excitement of belonging, the fear of rejection, the yearning for companionship. It is about the guilt imposed on us from within and without that drives us away from those who hurt us and toward those who make us whole.
It is also a tale of forgiveness, offering a tender culmination that moved me to tears.
Even the easiest coming out story is fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. Possibly the most crucial moment in the lifelong coming out process is the reaction of one’s parents. Hill has created an intimate story that is profoundly resonant. It is a marvelous little work of art, and a powerful reminder of how far we have yet to go.
By Jonathan Hill
Five stars
A long short story, by a young author of great talent, “Pride” follows the coming out experience of Liam, a fifteen-year-old, during the John Major years in England in the 1990s. I suspect this is a very personal story for Hill, for it fairly shimmers with the rawness of first-hand experience.
This is a beautifully written and told tale. It begins with the tentativeness of an emerging adolescent gay awareness, and carries the reader forward by carefully calibrated leaps, the voice alternating deftly between the third person and a first-person narrator. It is a tale about the excitement of belonging, the fear of rejection, the yearning for companionship. It is about the guilt imposed on us from within and without that drives us away from those who hurt us and toward those who make us whole.
It is also a tale of forgiveness, offering a tender culmination that moved me to tears.
Even the easiest coming out story is fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. Possibly the most crucial moment in the lifelong coming out process is the reaction of one’s parents. Hill has created an intimate story that is profoundly resonant. It is a marvelous little work of art, and a powerful reminder of how far we have yet to go.
May 29, 2015
This was a very easy book to read about a tough topic as it is written mostly light-heartedly and, as I am finding, a very hard book to review. I have read several of Mr Hill's Maureen stories and also a couple of his 100 word "drabbles" so was excited to see what he could do with this novella.
It is the story of Liam who, when we first meet him, is working out the lie to tell his parents to keep hidden the fact that he is going to his first Pride march. We then follow his story of discovery about who he is, his parents reaction and his first love...
Adolescence is tricky enough for a straight person. "Coming out" is a difficult thing to experience and adds a whole other dimension into this coming-of-age story and this come across very well in the writing. It's not all doom and gloom and heavy. there are some wonderfully poetic pieces and more than a few "laugh out loud" moments as well as some very tender moments.
I feel that I had got to know Liam quite well by the end of the book and so I was a little disappointed when the book finished as I feel that there is more to his story. I personally would love it if the author took the character further.
I received a free copy of this book in a Facebook competition, not in exchange for a review, I just thought I'd show my thanks by doing so!
It is the story of Liam who, when we first meet him, is working out the lie to tell his parents to keep hidden the fact that he is going to his first Pride march. We then follow his story of discovery about who he is, his parents reaction and his first love...
Adolescence is tricky enough for a straight person. "Coming out" is a difficult thing to experience and adds a whole other dimension into this coming-of-age story and this come across very well in the writing. It's not all doom and gloom and heavy. there are some wonderfully poetic pieces and more than a few "laugh out loud" moments as well as some very tender moments.
I feel that I had got to know Liam quite well by the end of the book and so I was a little disappointed when the book finished as I feel that there is more to his story. I personally would love it if the author took the character further.
I received a free copy of this book in a Facebook competition, not in exchange for a review, I just thought I'd show my thanks by doing so!
January 29, 2019
This book was quaint. It was short and sweet and described a good picture of the gay scene. Even I as a lesbian could relate to many things. Not a lot of excitement happens, but sometimes it's good to have a quiet story.
May 20, 2015
"The wonder of memory is its selectiveness.
You can forget the worthless and paint your canvas with
the seconds you want to last a lifetime."
Hill, Jonathan (2015-02-12). Pride (Kindle Location 522). . Kindle Edition.
You can forget the worthless and paint your canvas with
the seconds you want to last a lifetime."
Hill, Jonathan (2015-02-12). Pride (Kindle Location 522). . Kindle Edition.
June 4, 2019
I have to admit the only reason I read this book was for a reading challenge that was fairly specific for genre and/or title. This book met both requirements in a single book instead of two and, because it's also short, seemed an ideal choice. I've got to say I was really impressed. It's well-written, YA-appropriate (nothing explicit), and I found my self sympathizing with and caring for the characters. I loved that the book put their lives and concerns into terms I easily understood. This is a book I think parents should read, because it can help them understand what it's like for a teen to be in the closet, even at home. This is a book I think teens should read, for the same reason, but also because it represents hope that things can be better.
January 7, 2018
A very well written, easy to read novella about the coming out of a young boy in the gay community. I felt and instant attachment to Liam as he discovered himself and his community and it also took me back 30 years to the coming out of a good friend in the 1980's when acceptance was much more difficult. I enjoyed the quick easy read and would recommend to others, thanks for the copy Jonathan I enjoyed very much.
May 27, 2017
Loved this for the description of internal turmoil of a boy's first venture to Gay Pride and the sweet circle of "coicidence" at meeting and meeting again and then for a third time (third time's the charm) the same boy Ben three Prides in a row. Daamn! But it's too short, Jonathan!
December 8, 2015
Thank you Goodreads for sending me this book. This is a novella & I read it in two sittings. It is about a young boy called Liam and how he comes to terms dealing with his sexuality and how his parents deal with it. I found it easy to read and the novella very realistic. I will definitely look forward to reading more of Jonathan Hills books.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews