Misfits

by Roger E. Bruner

A teen misfit discovers that friendship is more important than popularity and forgiveness is a sign of true love.

When seventeen-year-old Ben Matthews moves to Virginia, he’s dying to break into the local in-crowd. Not very likely, though. The inner circle will never accept a misfit like him—a preacher’s kid.

Then he meets Lydia Lake, another preacher’s kid and a fellow misfit.

They form a tenor banjo and accordion duo the in-crowd openly ridicules, pushing Ben that much further away from their acceptance.

He and Lydia have become best friends, but her interest in Ben is also romantic. As much as he hates to hurt her by rejecting her advances, he can’t force himself to return her affection.

Ben auditions for a popular local Christian band. Although he wins the audition, he assumes his friendship with Lydia is doomed because of his failure to stand up to the band leader for berating her spitefully.

Ben finds that the cost of the popularity and acceptance he’s dreamed of is higher than he’s expected. While increasingly questioning the wisdom of remaining in the band, he realizes his feelings for Lydia are deepening.

But does she still have romantic feelings for Ben? Or are they even still friends?

He wants to apologize, but how? Will she listen? And can she possibly forgive him?

Will the new Everyday People club--a group of Crossroads High’s misfits—help to unite Ben and Lydia?

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2018

About the author

Former English teacher, job counselor/interviewer, and programmer/analyst. Retired at 62 to write full-time.

Roger can't decide which genre he prefers. He's written speculative fiction, contemporary women's fiction, and novels for teens. His current interest is fiction for and about senior adults. All of his twenty-four novels are Christian, however, and are free from objectionable language, sexual content, and gratuitous violence.

Roger plays bass on his church praise team and guitar at a weekly nursing home ministry. He has also been on mission trips to Australia, England, Wales, Romania, and Nicaragua.

At 78 he's still in pretty good health, but stays home a lot more than he used to. He enjoys reading, walking, photography, writing music and recording his own songs at home, and playing Quidler with his delightful wife, Kathleen.

Reviews

[Lindsay Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Misfits is the story of a preacher’s kid (PK), Ben Matthews and his struggle to find acceptance among his peers. It is told entirely from Ben’s perspective, and often seems to be the stream of consciousness of teenage Ben Matthews. This writing style took me some time to adjust to, but once I adjusted, I found myself enjoying Bruner’s unique style of telling this particular story. I think Bruner does an exceptional job of capturing the ongoing dialogue of a teenage boy’s mind. This book takes on the premise that all teenagers, popular and unpopular alike struggle in their own way of feeling like “misfits,” and I think this an accurate portrayal of how many, if not all teenagers struggle with this. Actually, I would argue, that for many, it is a struggle that goes beyond adolescence. At times, I found myself annoyed with some of the more shallow and judgmental thoughts of Ben Matthews, making it hard for me to like him as character. However, upon further reflection, I realized that I too was guilty of similar shallowness and judgmental attitudes as a teenager, and quite frankly, perhaps guilty of the same at times as an adult. With this in mind, I actually found Ben to be relatable character, and I think a fair representation of some of the struggles that teenagers, specifically Christian teenagers go through in their quest for popularity and acceptance. What Ben learns on this journey, and the overall message of this book, is that true acceptance must begin with self-acceptance. I would recommend this book primarily to teenagers who feel like they don’t quite fit in among their peers. However, it can also be good read for parents of teens or anyone who associates closely with them as it can serve as good reminder of some the struggles taking place inside the hearts and minds of the teenagers in your life.

[Robin Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d initially downloaded this book as an Amazon KINDLE Unlimited; however, in the end, I decided to buy a copy so it would become part of my permanent KINDLE Library on my computer.

I’m a multi-genre romance author myself, using three names because of the various genres I’ve written in, I found this delightful book to be as the author himself has described, to be quirky. An interesting thing about this is that it has gotten written by a male, a male who’s unabashed to have written it under his own name, rather than hiding it behind some feminine pen name like most male authors when writing romance. [This is forgetting about those males who write those ungodly gay romances.]

Perhaps the reason why the author, Roger Bruner, has been able to do it here, is that the story has gotten from the male protagonist's POV [point of view.] The story is one which the father, Ben Matthews, has written to his son, for him to understand that it’s okay to be a misfit because there’s always someone who would love you for being the person who you are. The problem the two protagonists had to face in their being misfits had been the misguided perceptions their peers possessed regarding them since the two are PKs [Preacher Kids]. Their peers believed that the two couldn’t participate in the same activities they did without them bringing religion into these activities.

Misfits are individuals who get persecuted for merely being who there are, and I, for one, knows what this is like since I got treated as a misfit due to a genetic condition I suffer from, that is until I get my dear OH. For having written an endearing, yet quirky story regarding being an adolescent, I’ve given the author, Roger Bruner, 5 STARS.