Golden Boys
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4.4 • 14 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
National bestselling author Phil Stamper crafts the perfect summer friendship story, starring four queer boys with big hearts and even bigger dreams.
It's the summer before senior year. Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small, rural town by their queerness, their good grades, and their big dreams. But they have plans for the summer, each about to embark on a new adventure.
Gabriel is volunteering at an environmental nonprofit in Boston.
Reese is attending design school in Paris.
Sal is interning on Capitol Hill for a senator.
Heath is heading to Florida, to help out at his aunt's boardwalk arcade.
What will this season of world-expanding travel and life-changing experiences mean for each of them--and for their friendship?
Phil Stamper treats readers to an emotionally resonant summer story, full of aspirational experiences, sweet romance, and joyously affirming friendship.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Friends since preschool, Gabriel, Heath, Reese, and Sal are all gay and implied white in small-town Ohio. The summer before senior year, they'll be apart for the first time. While Gabriel helps an environmental group in Boston, Sal's interning with a senator in Washington, D.C., the distance placing their friends-with-benefits arrangement on hold. And while Heath makes money working for his long-estranged aunt in Daytona Beach, Reese studies graphic design in Paris. The friends alternate narration and chime in to group chats, talking through—and sometimes glossing over—their difficulties. Gabriel's anxious enough without having to accost strangers on the street for donations. Sal's internship is so disorganized it borders on exploitative. Heath and Reese are both suffering from unrequited love, and Reese is less than certain about continuing with his course of study. Stamper (As Far as You'll Take Me) has written a good-natured duology opener—all four guys genuinely care for and support one another—about navigating the familial, romantic, and vocational challenges that come with taking their first steps away from home and familiarity. Ages 13–up.
