King Geordi the Great

by Gene Gant

Is there such a thing as caring too much?

Geordi never thought so. He knows he’s lucky to have progressive parents who support him after they discover he’s gay, but when his dad gets overzealous, things go downhill. Geordi’s friend Toff is not only hurt that Geordi hid his sexuality from him—he’s also been in love with Geordi for months. Rather than further damage their relationship, Geordi goes along with a romance he doesn’t feel. When things start to get physical, though, Geordi knows it’s time to be honest with himself and his friends, no matter what the consequences. A tragedy is about to strike, and Geordi, Toff, and their friend Jess will need each other more than ever. For Geordi to find his strength, he’ll have to first find the courage to chart his own course in life—outside the control of his parents or the pressure of his peers.

Genres: Young Adult, LGBT, Contemporary, Romance, M M Romance, Fiction, Queer

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2018

About the author

Gene Gant lives with his family in a small, rural community in West Tennessee. He has been a ghost writer for many years and is looking forward to publishing more works under his own name.

Reviews

[Ekollon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was . . . not great. To be honest, some of the tropes in it were pretty darned harmful. For example (and this is a fairly long spoiler, and it's a spoiler about what happens towards the end of the book), while I know that people love to play around with the "they think don't love him/her, but they really do!" idea, I have absolutely never found that to be the case in real life. In real life, if someone is confronted with an individual who wants to be in a relationship with them and they think that they don't want to be in a relation with that person, they really, actually, honestly don't want to be in a relationship with that person, and trying to convince them that they don't know their feelings and everything would change if they just ignored what they thought they felt and pushed themselves to be in a relationship ends VERY poorly. But this book DEPENDS on undermining Geordi's perception and awareness of his feelings with someone he has known incredibly well for years. Why wouldn't he know how he feels about this person? Because it makes good drama to undermine his own grasp of his emotions, despite the fact that he has no real reason to have issues about this. it depressed me.

I also didn't like the way that Geordi's parents kept exposing Geordi's incredibly personal business to the world. That was profoundly violating and, when dealing with an LGBT kid, potentially very dangerous. Furthermore, we're given insight that at least one of Geordi's parents should have known how dangerous this could be. Regardless, it's pretty much played off as quirky, even when very real consequences for the parents' actions rain down upon Geordi's head.

In fact, in general the consequences of pretty serious stuff are treated very lightly (another endgame spoiler here) thinking parent death by suicide here, and that kind of weirds me out. Is it because the book is categorized as YA, so the author tried to minimize the emotional impact by treating the profoundly serious issues casually? That doesn't give the YA audience enough credit. if you're going to bring up serious issues, some of which your audience have dealt with, deal with those issues with the emotional gravity they deserve.

[Bárbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell was this? It was all over the place.
You know, next time I feel insecure about my crappy writing, remind me that this book exists. If this mess can be published then it wouldn't be so crazy that any crap I can put together might too.

[Line]

Freebie at amazon.com right now: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0762NWQC...

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

5 stars

There were so many layers to King Geordi the Great, from what it’s like to be young, gay, and experience first love, to being forced to grow up way too fast. This isn’t just Geordi’s story, but Toff’s as well. Both boys must learn to maneuver in a world they never really expected to be in. For Geordi, it’s grappling with the idea that his best friend is in love with him and he isn’t really sure he feels the same. For Toff, it’s the realization that the father he thought he knew was a stranger who had checked out of life many years before. Both boys will ride an incredibly rough roller coaster of emotions as events unfold in this novel. In the end, it will be their friendship that carries them through and brings them together, closer than ever before. Along the way there will be humor, acceptance, and lots of love—supportive families, hot sudden crushes, and big revelations. But through it all, Geordi will always have one constant—a network of people who always have his back.

King Geordi the Great is a wonderful coming of age story that has just enough twists and turns to make it exciting and riveting. Author Gene Gant writes characters who come alive on the page and whose stories capture the heart and imagination. I highly recommend this novel to you.

Read Sammy’s review in its entirety here.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet book about a young man discovering love for the first time as he tries to navigate through life. I loved the cringe worthy moments created by the dad and occasionally the mom. Heart warming, sad and funny in equal measures.

[Kaje Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. We see a lot of books with a gay teen afraid to come out to his parents. Here in a twist we have parents who are not only accepting but enthusiastic, and in the case of Geordi's father, with a poor sense of personal boundaries. They throw him a rainbow coming out party before he's really come out to more than one best friend. In so doing, they mess up Geordi's relationship with his best friend Toff, and send Geordi tumbling into confusion about who he's attracted to, and how to handle being out.

Toff is in the opposite position, with a father who has been completely emotionally absent since his mother died years ago. Toff's dad provides for him physically, but never manages to connect with him emotionally, and doesn't react to anything he does, good or bad. Geordi's parents are more present in Toff's life than his own dad.

There isn't much sex as plot in the book, but it realistically assumes two 15-year-olds are going to be thinking about it a lot, and maybe taking a first step or two. I'm giving this book a round-up star for including a scene where a parent discusses with their kid how to put on a condom correctly. It's sad commentary about the state of sex ed in the US that I applaud works of teen fiction that have information that might save lives, in a context of fiction teens might enjoy.

I did feel like the light, breezy tone of the narration skated over the surface of some serious issues here. The risks and emotional impact on a kid of being outed involuntarily by their parents was allowed to slide by, for the most part. And the fact that the plot also revolves around parental emotional neglect and family loss made the easy resolution ring a bit hollow. There was room for more depth and emotion as the second half of the book took a serious turn. I loved the representation (gay, bi, questioning, and lesbian characters) and the level of acceptance among the families, but wished for a bit more acknowledgement of the impact some events should have had on the characters.

I wanted to smack Geordi's father several times, not least when he categorized his own youthful relationship with a boy as "lots of teens have same-sex feelings, and for many of them, those feelings go away and never resurface" - a facile dismissal of his own bisexuality. But since the book made a point of having bi characters, I'm giving the author a pass on his character's obliviousness. I also wished that Toff's mental health in the face of all he dealt with had been given serious address.

This wasn't my favorite book by this author, but I'm always in favor of a story with an LGBTQ POC teen with accepting parents.

Note the significant trigger warning for - major spoiler suicide of a parent

[Lara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This...was kind of a mess. It was free on Amazon recently so I got it and started reading it before actually looking at reviews. Anyway, I found the writing super awkward and clunky, and the plot is really all over the place, and the way soooo many situations are handled in this thing are completely ridiculous. There are a few nice moments here and there (although there are definitely more not-nice-at-all moments), but there’s zero depth, even with the really serious issues. And I have no idea why this is the title Gant chose.

Maybe okay if you’re not too discerning, but otherwise I’d just give this a pass.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! The writing was some of the best I've seen in a young adult book. Geordi, the narrator, resonated with me and took me back to when I was a young, queer, mixed kid. I wish I had half the support he did at that age, though. And I wanted to strangle his dad, until the end of the book when it's explained why he's so overzealous about every aspect of Geordi's life. The support characters were great, except Carson, who deserved a punch in the face despite how he tried to redeem himself in the end. My one gripe was that I felt like the Mr. Toffler situation wasn't fleshed out enough. The event was too big of a deal for it to be presented as sort of a secondary plot line. And it just seemed like things were wrapped in too nice of a bow at the end. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to checking out more of this author's work.

[Janae Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my God. I really enjoyed this. So funny and cute with some really heartfelt moments.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars- was a free Kindle read from Amazon, but definitely not worth paying for. This book was...unfocused and not that good. The title also has no apparent relationship to the plot, which is just kind of a slice of life/gossipy dating story but with a majority LGBT cast of characters and a strange subplot about one character's depressive father. Am rounding up from 1.5 stars because it had a great scene with a mom talking to her son about how to use a condom properly and I aim to one day be able to have that conversation without wanting to die with my kid. Not recommended.

[Nilda McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story with some hard issues

This was a great story that brought up some intense issues. Things like depression, suicide, discovering sexuality, and helicopter parents. The HE A ending was a little trite, but I think I would have been disappointed if it wasn't there.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling tale of fathers and sons that supports the crazy premise that there are more sexualities than hetero.

[Dannica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just being honest, I read this book much much too fast in an attempt to avoid writing an essay. But, some general impressions:
-There's an interesting love triangle here and I like the way it sorts itself out. I personally was very surprised that Geordi was actually into Toff, as he seemed very adamant about the opposite. But on the other hand, if you look at his actions--going all out to give Toff a good first date, prioritizing Toff and worrying about his feelings--it makes sense. Anyway it's probably better that way than being with Jake just because you're both gay and he's hot.
-Also love the feeling of a sort of ensemble cast? Like, there's Geordi and Toff of course, but then there's Jessica and Jake and Carson and all these others, and they're all important to the way the story unravels.
-On the one hand, it would be great to have parents that supportive. On the other hand...yikes. No way I would want to be outed to that many people. That's awful.
-Love the author's writing style.
I should probably reread because in my essay-avoidant mind frame I got more the gist, less enjoyment of the details. But anyway yeah it's good.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, but flawed. Geordi's dad acts with the best of intentions, but definitely does a couple of things that aren't ok. Some super predictable romance tropes are at play, and the situation involving Toff's dad can be seen from a mile away. Still, Geordi is a sorta likeable kid and the narration moves quickly.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a slow stretch near the beginning, up until the dance; then it got interesting. I'm not entirely convinced the author pulled off the transition from broad comedy to heartstring-tugging drama, and I had problems believing part of the resolution, but on the whole I liked it enough.

[Codi Boone-murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. Started off ok. Then felt like it turned to a stalkholm syndromy - forced into it - love. Oh and don't forget to throw in some extremely stupid danger to try to make the story interesteding with car theft and underage driving out of nowhere. Got super cringe.

[Grace W · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 I kinda hate Geordi...

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is just ridiculous.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a good premises and I had fun reading it but it felt like a "Which kid has the worse life" more than a coming out, love-ish story. But it was cute. I had a good time reading it

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers the L, the G, the B, and the Q. Why no T?

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

better than most Harmony Ink books

[Hendrix Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adorable. Geordi's parents remind me of my own. My overzealous Mama threw a party for my first period!

[Aimee Rekoske · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this

It was a sweet romance with a little bit of mystery. I recommend this book to anyone looking for something a little different.

[kt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. A little preachy at times but overall a very quick, enjoyable one.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Geordie was ready to learn about friendship and family, but first, he had some growing up to do.