The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

The Revenge Game
By Jax Calder
Published by the author, 2025
Five stars

One of the most interesting aspects of the world of m/m fiction is the ways in which authors take classic romance tropes and infuse them with individuality and energy. Jax Calder’s “The Revenge Game” is a great example of this.

There are two classic gay romance tropes here, with deep roots in the Young Adult fiction genre: the jock/nerd pairing, and the bully/victim pairing. The second one can be particularly troublesome, and yet also emotionally powerful when handled well.

The set-up is also archetypal: computer geek Andrew Yates lives in a small Texas town, where he attends high school. The school’s golden boy is the football team captain Justin Morris, who is not only a great athlete, but also beautiful. Andrew is bullied all through his school years, and perceives Justin as the ringleader of the bullies (although, interestingly, Justin himself never lays a hand on Andrew).

Fast forward ten years and we find Andrew in London, trying to figure out what to do next in his life, having sold his tech company for HUNDREDS of millions of dollars. Living well is the best revenge, eh? Not quite. Completely by chance, Andrew spots his teen nemesis in a pub, where Justin looks right at him—and acts as if he’s never seen him before.

Triggered anew by being ignored by the boy who bullied him, Andrew hatches a harebrained scheme to work his way into Justin’s life and then wreak vengeance on him. And that’s what he does. The slightly creepy stalker quality of Andrew’s plan is nicely managed by the author, who reminds us constantly of the pain Andrew suffered at Justin’s behest, and noting that in this case vengeance means “embarrassing Justin so that he understands what he did.”

This is no psychotic killer here, but a lonely young man who, in spite of his success, has never recovered from his high school trauma.

Where the author begins to mess things around is by first making Justin seem like a remarkably nice man; and secondly by letting us inside Justin’s head as much as we’re inside Andrew’s head. The story develops in a back-and-forth between Justin and Andrew, which weaves a nice, vivid picture of the past. I will say, the author throws a mildly far-fetched plot twist into the story, but one which I appreciated, as it made the moral factors suddenly shift in an unexpected way (I can’t give more detail because it would spoil the fun).

In the end, this made me cry more than once. Jax Calder knows how to manipulate emotion in a way that feels authentic and suitable. For all its familiarity, it felt like a dramatically new take on a romantic favorite.