ARC Review - Don't Let Me Go

Don't Let Me Go by J.H. Trumble

(400 pages)

Pub. date: 12/27/11

My rating: 5/5 stars

Series: N/A

About the book:

Some people spend their whole lives looking for the right partner. Nate Schaper found his in high school. In the eight months since their cautious flirting became a real, honest, tell-the-parents relationship, Nate and Adam have been inseparable. Even when local kids take their homophobia to brutal levels, Nate is undaunted. He and Adam are rock solid. Two parts of a whole. Yin and yang.

But when Adam graduates and takes an Off-Broadway job in New York—at Nate’s insistence—that certainty begins to flicker. Nate starts a blog to vent his frustrations and becomes the center of a school controversy, drawing ire and support in equal amounts. But it is the attention of a new boy who is looking for more than guidance that forces him to confront who and what he really wants.

J.H. Trumble’s debut, DON’T LET ME GO, is a witty, beautifully written novel that is both a sweet story of love and long-distance relationships, and a timely discourse about bullying, bigotry, and hate in high schools.

My thoughts:

I fell in love with this book, the characters, everything! Don't Let Me Go easily made it onto my 2011 favorite reads list. I was so happy to be fortunate enough to get an ARC of this, and was even happier when I realized just how great this book was!

Nate was a wonderful main character. He was loveable and real and a strong person. Nate is funny and talented and a good friend. And Nate is dealing with his past, a past that was horrifying and terrible and very public. Without his boyfriend Adam's help Nate might never have gotten though it. 

Adam was one of my favorite characters. He was funny and easy going and talented and a great guy. He had his faults though. He spent most of the novel in New York, while his boyfriend was at home in Texas. Adam living with three other guys, fellow actors, and trying to keep a long distance relationship going strong. But things begin to fall apart between the two with a series of misunderstandings and busy schedules. 

Nate deals with this with the help of a new friend, Danial. Danial is comfortable being friends with the schools only openly gay student even though he himself is straight. Danial is my favorite character. He is protective of his friends and will do anything to see that the people he cares about don't get hurt. So it's only fitting that, when Nate starts up a campaign at school, Danial appoints himself as his bodyguard and best friend.

Without revealing too much, Luke was a character I started out disliking, then began to like and feel bad for, then disliked again. Luke was shy and sweet, naive and innocent, but he also got a little annoying and I felt like he was too naive sometimes. He began to boarder on pathetic when he got to chasing Nate around, even though Nate was in love with Adam.

As for background characters. I loved Adam's parents, particularly Ben, and I LOVED Nate's grandma, (I want a grandma like her!) I liked Juliet okay, but felt like she was a little desperate. I liked Mr. Wolf. I pretty much liked the majority of the characters. 

I really enjoyed how Nate and Adam's story was written, going back and forth between the past and present. Going back into the past gave readers a chance to get to know Nate before he met Adam, after, and when his relationship with Adam is tested because of the events of one horrifying night. We get to see the boys' coming out stories. But we also get to see what happens after all that, when their relationship is tested this time with distance. 

I really loved this book! Don't Let Me Go was one of those books you want to start again the moment you finish it. It was heartbreaking and hopeful, filled with strong and wonderful characters. Tackling strong subjects like homophobia and abuse, this novel was an amazing debut. You couldn't ask for anything more in a book. I have no complaints other than it ended.