This year’s passing of Olivia Newton John was heartbreaking on a million different levels, but one among them was that for many queer guys my age, her Sandy in Grease represented the first time many of us saw someone summoning their bad side to attract a man, kicking off a lifetime of questionable choices. We all took notes: tight, black clothes, a wink and a puff of smoke, calling someone “stud” free of any irony. Sandy conveyed something to us that would stick with us forever and destroy any hope we had for a normal dating life - tapping into one’s bad side is tantamount to being interesting!
Granted, Sandy was never actually BAD, but that was kind of the point, wasn’t it? We’d feign a sinister, rebellious side to appear more magnetic to our suitors because we were drawn to the mystery ourselves. And even when BAD is pretend or misguided, it means our gay boys in the novels we read have at least a little agency, and that’s never a given.
If you couldn’t tell already, this is going to be a very gay issue of this newsletter. I’m otherwise currently trying to power through a whole bunch of reads that my 2022 might feel incomplete without finishing. And the Tournament of Books shortlist is already here! Before this literary fiction onslaught, though, the past month or so has provided me with a couple books with a common through line: the gay bad boys and the folks who are hopelessly devoted to them.
THE LIBRARY IS OPEN
The Winners
by Fredrik Backman (2022)
The Beartown series should absolutely not work as well as it does. (Note: Very gay newsletter, as promised, but not those kind of bears.) The Winners is the third and likely final installment of Backman’s Beartown saga, which recounts the intense hockey rivalry of two far-north, rural Swedish towns at war and each others’ throats. Imagine Friday Night Lights, but frostier and with a Nordic rigor. The first book in the series was adapted for a HBO Scandinavian miniseries with impossibly attractive Swedish folks who glowed like the Northern Lights against the dark nights on screen.
The books should not work for so many reasons. There’s a hokey, omniscient narrator who teaches over-the-top lessons along the way. The characters fit neatly into tropes and are often too clever by half. There are dozens of characters to keep track of, and the books are long. Foreshadowing stands in the corner tapping a neon sign he’s holding over his head. But somehow, the whole is less cheesy than the sum of its parts. You care deeply about what’s happening. I cried at the end of each of the books. The stories are genuine and memorable, and the situations are believable. The pages keep flapping.
I’m about to slightly get into spoiler territory, so beware.
One fan-favorite character is Benjamin “Benji” Ovich. With "sad eyes and a wild heart,” Benji is known as the "fighter" on the Beartown Ice Hockey team, and his potential - and loyalty - are limitless. If you’re following my FNL analogy, he’s Beartown’s Riggins. The sport seemed to be the only thing he had in the small town, a series of events puts his loyalty to the test, he never met a critic he wouldn’t punch…*newscaster voice* but he’s gay. Benji is haunted by his secret, and once it comes out, his life (and the town) is changed forever. More importantly, as you read about him, you become the living version of the emoji face with the hearts in his eyes. He’s the bad boy athlete with a secret we all dreamed up in high school. I’ll miss him now that the series is over. The whole saga is great, but the Benji story alone is enough to make it worth picking up.
Read it if you like: Friday Night Lights, sports sagas, Scandinavian literature, crying as you shut the book, a gay character for the ages
You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince
by Timothy Janovsky (2022)
I read somewhere once that the romance readers are among the smartest because they know exactly where things are going to end up and can enjoy the ride of a book. The beats are all there, aligned with expectations. Romance is the ultimate in comfort reading because of this. We’ve been lucky enough to have a whole slew of queer romances released over the years with protagonists in any combination of LGBTQ and beyond that you can imagine. And lately there’s been a bunch of holiday-themed queer romances, too; I was determined to read one this year.
Enter Matthew Prince, a spoiled as hell, affluent, bad boy, sent away by his parents (and their PR team) from his socialite life in NYC to his grandparents’ humble village in the Berkshires after his spending behavior got out of hand. Cultures are shocked, sensibilities are offended, lessons are learned! Upon arrival, he is surprised to realize that he’s going to have to share a room with his grandparent’s tenant, an uptight, hardworking student, who loves chopping wood and judging the rich. It may not surprise you to learn that the tenant, Hector Martinez, has a shoulder-length locks, a hot body, and can’t stand Matthew. Sounds like a recipe for disaster! Or does it? Not today, Santa.
Of course it doesn’t. Things get hot and emotional and hot again, and the gentlemen navigate how opposites attract as they plan the town’s charity gala together. You basically know how it ends, kind of! It doesn’t matter! Sometimes the ghost of Christmas present turns a bad boy into a good one and rewards his behavior with a holiday helper he never knew he needed.
Read it if you like: romance, enemies to lovers, having the Grinch song stuck in your head, swoonings, some actually surprising twists
A Very, Very Quick Good Boy Interlude
The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers
by Adam Sass (2022)
I cannot believe I have friends who write books! There’s no way I could objectively judge any book my friend Adam wrote, but if you’re in the mood for a YA romantic fairy tale written through the lens of a queer-friendly world, then this one is for you. It cleverly maps onto Cinderella, but it takes you on a journey to find the real Prince Charming. The book contains so much unfettered affirmation. The challenges come completely from navigating love and life and not from homophobia. The fairy tale book is basically devoid of it altogether. So, I recommend if you’re looking to feel good - or to press queer joy into the hands of someone who needs it like I did as a young one- you should pick up this guy.
Henry Hamlet’s Heart
by Rhiannon Wilde (2022)
We head Down Under for another romance with a cute coming of age novel about a high school senior (or whatever they’re called in Australia) who negotiates the twists and turns of graduating, thriving in his friend group, not knowing what he wants to do with his life, and of course, falling in love with his complicated smoke show of a BFF. Henry Hamlet, indecisive as you would expect a Hamlet to be, thought he was potentially in the market for an Ophelia until his best friend Len kisses him on a dare at a party and sparks fly.
Note: I get that we’ve got to go with the flow with how romance characters, especially friends, cross the line into Loverland, but where were these “dare to kiss someone” parties when I was a 12th year nerd?
In any case, like in any good coming of age, these kids have bodies that are growing faster than their hearts and don’t exactly know how to explore a relationship without ruining their friendship. Little do they know as gay folks, it’s going to become their normal custom to make out with their friends all the time, or become friends with someone only after they hook up randomly, or, well…you get it. The most interesting part of this book is that the object of our Hamlet’s affection is actually kind of a moody jerk! He’s a bit of a bad boy artist. Sure, there are complicated reasons for his mercurial nature, and we navigate these with the hero. Despite all that, the book is a cute, quick read, and do we want these Aussie lads to abandon their connection because things get crazy complicated? The answer is NAUR!
LIGHTNING ROUND
You may want to explore more Aussie coming of age gay romance with a ballet student whose life comes crashing down when he breaks one of his dancin’ legs?
What about a little gay love story mapped over Legally Blonde with a guy named Blaine?
Maybe allow your fan fiction loving mind to run wild in a story with boy band members who totally start doing it?
Until next time…Happy reading!