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The Boy Behind The Red Door (2011)

by John Goode(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Dreamspinner Press

review 1: Hmm, I hate to say it, but this was not one of the better Christmas books I have read. It had an interesting sort of start, Matt is a young man (though he sounded old in my head, older than 28) who wavers between the present where he is a miserable gay man in the city who left small town life because he felt he didn’t fit in. Problem is, he has small town values so he doesn’t feel like he fits into the city life either. He has a few flashbacks to when he was young, first realizing he was gay, and the boy who fueled his fantasies which has a wonderful, nostalgic feel to it. Unfortunately, Matt doesn’t come across as a nice person. I get he doesn’t like this time of year and its rough, but he's mean to his friends and rude to his mom who calls, worried about him. Mat... moret returns to his family home for the holidays but feels disconnected from them. He decides to go out and do something nice for one of his brothers who bought a cheap game system for his four kids. (Problem is, he is going to buy a new game system for one of his brothers, but he has two other brothers who also have lots of kids. How's that going to play out Christmas morning?!?) Anyhew, at the store he runs into his old crush Tyler, the one he's been comparing all other men too. Tyler needs work on his computer, Matt volunteers after getting over the shock that his crush even knows his name.Ipso, facto a day later, Matts at Tyler’s house, helping him fix his computer. A little flirting, Tyler confesses he likes Matt too and Matt...finishes working on his computer. THAT’S IT?? That’s his reaction to a confession he's been waiting on forever? 'Let me finish fixing this first, then I can get my reward.’ Wow...LAME...The story finishes with a little punch line that’s cute, but I didn’t find the characters likable much at all. Solid two stars, shaky three (I downgraded back to two stars the more I thought about it.)
review 2: The middle part of this story was amusing, with some cute self-deprecating lines from the first person narrator. But I was pulled out of the story from the beginning when north Texas was identified as being the Midwest. What? Texas is the Southwest. That's an item that should have been picked up in editing this story. Another detail that pulled me out: From the description of Foster, the town from which the narrator escapes and then returns, I am going to guess that the town was actually in the Texas panhandle, where the winters truly can be fierce. North Texas, not so much. I do think this is an interesting story idea. I would have liked to see the structure rebalanced, though. There was too much non-essential information in the beginning about Matt, the narrator, for what is only a short story. If this had been a novella, then that would have made sense. For a story called "The Boy Behind the Red Door," there isn't all that much focus on Tyler, either. And the ending comes a bit too swiftly. less

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