BOOK: Honesty by Seth King

I came across this book while searching for my next literary adventure. I knew I didn't want something about a teen vampire. I had just read my way through a bad vampire series and I didn't want to jump into another made-up world of magic and danger just yet. Instead I stumbled upon the book Honesty by Seth King. The cover art stood out from the others on the list of most popular and it was a price I liked... sample downloaded! It would be an understatement if I said that I didn't know what I was getting myself into, so I won't because I didn't.

I jumped into the sample the minute it downloaded onto my tablet and I read the words: "My story was real, and it happened, and no matter how hard I try and forget it, I will never be able to make it unhappen." Just like that I was hooked into a world of magic and danger. Unlike the made-up world of teen vampire novels this book took place in the real world with very real monsters and fear -- the south. The magic was all encompassing love, and the danger... I'll get to that in a minute.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a particularly strong opinion of the south. What I do know is that since moving from the Midwest three years ago to southern North Carolina things are just different. I don't really know how to explain it but it's like life operates at a different frequency. I have lived in many different places in my life but not where anyone would describe as south or southern until now. Here in southern North Carolina things move slowly, people can't drive, taxes are high, state pride is at an all time high and opportunities come to those with connection -- or maybe that's just my perception. 

Back to the book... this is a story of young love. This is also a story of fear and pain. Cole and Nick are falling in love and they are also both closeted LGBTQ nineteen year olds with everything to lose. Cole's dysfunctional family tries their best to deny his more "feminine" interest pushing him to act more masculine. Nick's family takes pride in their athletic, popular and masculine son, who's praying for the "normal" life his parents expect. While their love sets them free in the best ways possible, it also imprisons them and put their lives in danger of crumbling around them if anyone finds out. 

What struck me most about this story is its -- honesty. I just wanted to reach through the pages of this book and hug these characters, comfort them and tell them it'll be okay. Tell them that there are people in the world who will accept you as you are, as you were meant to be. I can't imagine the world I live in being so cruel and intolerant, then I realize I don't know a lot about the world outside my own bubble.

I decided very quickly that this story should not be seen through the lens of my own experience in this world or my feeling on equality and tolerance or what I knew to be possible, this story was about how these characters experience the world. This book spoke to me and taught me a few things about myself. You don't have to be struggling in the same away to take an important lesson from this book. Truth is truth no matter how we stumble upon it.

I read Honesty in 2.5 days. I read it late into the night because I couldn't put it down. I read it on the couch ignoring my husband while he played video games next to me. It was intense, heavy and unlike any other literary experience I've had to date -- mainly thanks to King's writing style. I was stuck inside the brain of Cole Furman and I couldn't get out for 291 pages not matter how uncomfortable, intense, exciting, lonely or heartbreaking it was!

Simply put... this book feels important. This book is brave. This book is honest. 

I'm glad the author acknowledged the need for more books in this genre featuring more diverse couples. It's something I didn't even know I wanted to see happen. I'm glad people like Seth King are brave enough to write a book that challenges the norm. I fell in love with these characters just as much as any other book about love and I want others to have the same experience. Love is love and love looks different to everyone. This book is about a very human experience, we shouldn't need to put it in a different category away from all the other books.

Some Favorite Quotes:

"The casual kind of cruelty hurt the worse, as it usually rolled off the lips of the ones we loved most. Sometimes we let our loved ones pick and pick and pick at us until suddenly there was nothing left to save."

"Who I loved was as much a part of me as my hair color or the fact that I was right-handed at everything except taking photos. Boys were in my DNA."

"'man is free the instance he decided to be.' That was just so untrue. We were trapped in ten thousand different ways, and there was nothing we could do about it."

"Chains come in all shapes and sizes, squirt. Some of them we even make for ourselves."

"First you thought you knew everything. Then you discovered you knew nothing. Then you learned that knowing nothing was okay. Then you started over from there."

Are you going to read Honesty in the future? Have you ever read a book you felt was important to share with the world? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Update: I couldn't get Cole Furman's voice out of my head or my ears after reading this book. Go check out the soundtrack I put together for this book -- here.