Nice Jewish Boys by Sarah L Young

Title - Nice Jewish Boys
Author - Sarah L Young
Published - Aug '17
Publisher - Less Than Three Press
Genre - #LGBTQIA
Pages - 180
Price on Amazon - Paperback - £9.87 Kindle - £3.83
ISBN - 1684310679

Avishai Miller is a normal kid except he is motherless as his mother died and he hardly speaks to his father. He attends a Jewish private school. He has a huge secret. What is his secret? He is dating another boy in his class. When all of a sudden there secret is out in the open, the two boys are thrown completely off their feet.

This book really hit home for me, as I am myself Jewish and gay. I know the tremendous effects coming out has and the fallout that can come from 'coming out of the closet' (boy I hate that saying) Being Jewish and gay does not go well together, It is not accepted within the Jewish community and my family have never gotten over it and its now seven years later (Anyway back to the review)

I was able to really feel so much empathy for the boys in this story and I was really able to connect to what they were going through and this for me made me connect with the book even more.

A brilliant story, well written and really heart touching. A great addition to the LGBTQIA genre. I will be interested to read more by Young.

Thank You to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating - Four out of Five Stars
Would I Read Again? - Yes
Would I Recommend? - Yes
Would I read other books by the same author? - Yes

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It can be hard to write a book that successfully bridges the gap between a personal story and the political issues that informs it. Such is the case with Nice Jewish Boys, a mildly engrossing story of two boys who come out to their families during high school. Unfortunately there was nothing unexpected or challenging in the book and it follows a very well know narrative of this genre. While it was not hard to feel empathy for the boys who are faced with very real challenges the dialogue seems pedantic and and common and it never really gets beyond that. If the author is young and this is a first book I look forward to reading more complex stories with characters that are deep and real.

Thank you Netgallery for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion.

While the concept of this book is great, the actual book itself falls short.

Yes, i think we need a gay YA Jewish story. No, i do not think this book is it.
The author really needs to do more research to make this story believable. Maybe even talk with young gay teens? I think there is a lot to be carved out of this story. This just seemed like plot points. The author needs to take it a step further.
I didn't believe the characters, most of the plot, the suicide, and definitely not the religion aspect of the story.

I was very interested in this book because I am Jewish and live in Israel, Jewish characters that are religious are rare is MM books and I was very hopeful about this book. It started out good, the boys are in a relationship already and it was refreshing to me, to not focus on the 'How they get together' but how they deal with the consequences of it in a Jewish religious environment. Unfortunately, the book lost its believability as it progressed, I may not lead a religious life but I do know some of the things were just off. For instance, a Jewish boy would not likely be left home alone most of the week and cook, that is a woman's job. I am not saying it is bad he is allowed to do it, but as fanatic as his father is, it did not make sense. Also when Avishai is outed by his father, a bigoted homophobe, his father is oddly accepting/ uses it to his advantage. But then he lets his boyfriend live with them unsupervised while still not accepting his homosexuality. Characters changed direction and were hard/lenient according to what the author wanted to happen next and not their character and were flat and underdeveloped.
I did not get that, it felt like some parts about religion were true, and the addition of prayers in Hebrew was a very nice touch to me. Nonetheless I feel like this book needs more work, it lakes consistency, logic and just did not work in my opinion.

Somewhere in this book there were the makings of a good story. It was lost, however, in how rushed everything was and the authors apparent need for things to work out perfectly in the end for all involved parties. I really did like the premise, and I think that Young has a lot of potential as a writer. This book was just too rushed, it felt like nothing was set up or explained in depth enough. These characters and their situations are just thrown at us, and then the plot moves at lightening speed.

I also don't personally care for a book where things are all so neatly taken care of. Our MC's father, who is a very religious Republican type, is apparently just very okay with his son being gay. Which is what I would hope for in a perfect world, but we sadly must use a little more realism here. Also there just happens to be a school that's exclusively for gay kids located just an hour away from where these characters live? It's just all too much for me, and the perfection often took me out of the story. I hope that Young continues to write, the potential is fantastic, I just want to see the author push themselves more.

While I was very enthusiastic about the idea of a YA book with observant queer Jewish representation, the execution unfortunately was not quite there. There were serious pacing and character development issues and some major scenes of dialogue came across as misplaced and excessively didactic. While there is still room to write stories about queer tragedies like parental rejection, expulsion and suicide attempts, they are not given sufficient emotional depth in this book to feel like a new story.

This book was really frustrating. It felt like a lecture on how to be nice to your gay son even if you understand nothing. I was reading highlights out to Leon (my husband), and he asked if the person writing it had ever been a teenage boy. I ask if she had ever met a gay teenager.
The two main characters cry ALL THE TIME. Avishai is meant to be depressed, so that makes sense, but Noah is meant to be over six foot tall and masculine. And he also cries all the time.
There is an utterly cringe worthy scene where they explain to his father – who is a US Congressman, no less that “if you call anyone … a name that you would feel in any way offended or insulted being called, then my expert advice to you would be to think twice before calling them that." Yep, don’t call your kid queer. I’m just nitpicking, because the premise of the book is great - two teenage boys who attend a Jewish private school come out. But it’s written in a really melodramatic, overwrought manner.
When I finished the book I discovered that it was written for NaNoWriMo when the author was 15, which explained a lot. I would absolutely recommend that she keeps writing, under all the melodrama I think she showed a strong, confident authorial voice.

I don't really want my star rating to put everyone off from reading this. It didn't work for me but it could work for someone else. The main reason I gave it 2 stars is because I just really wasn't in the target audience. It's clearly written with religious queer teenagers in mind, and since I have never been religious I really couldn't relate to the characters' experiences and I had difficulties with understanding them.

Even though I couldn't quite connect with the story, I found it engaging enough to read in one sitting. The main characters, Avishai and Noah, are deeply religious. Being Jewish is an important part of their identity, and they have decided to wait till marriage before having sex. They have to find a way to reconcile their sexuality with their religious views, and the prospect of being cut off from the religious community is extremely distressing to them. Despite all of the struggles they are also learning to be proud of their sexuality, and the validity of their relationship is never questioned, which I found really sweet and positive. Even though this describes a very different queer experience from my own, I can appreciate the overall message of hope.

The writing itself comes across as pretty rough and inexperienced, but what it does have is a lot of raw emotion, and I can see that this could be an important book for someone who is dealing with the same things as Avishai and Noah. It needs to be recommended with a trigger warning though: there is a suicide attempt described from the main character's point of view.