Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
Life was going along just fine for Ben Campbell until he hit fourteen. That was the year his father announced that he was gay and his mother left. His dad's boyfriend moved in, and Ben started counseling -- and also misbehaving.
Now, after three years of run-ins with the law, Ben's dad has decided the only way to save Ben is to leave Spokane. At age seventeen, city boy Ben finds himself living in Rough Butte, Montana. Edward, who Ben calls Momdad, has agreed to take them back to the hometown he left when he was Ben's age. In Rough Butte, Ben is surrounded by homophobic cowboys, Edward's acid-tongued mother, Miss Mae, and an abusive neighbor with a strange young son.
Used to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, quickly ends for Ben as Miss Mae schools him in acceptable country behavior. She expects respect and hard work, and she doesn't hesitate to use her wooden spoon as a weapon to encourage it. Ben reluctantly falls in line and even finds it rewarding at times. His father and Edward seem pleased for the most part, and his improved attitude and behavior are useful in his quest to attract the attention of the beautiful girl living just four doors down the street.
There are still frustrations for Ben. Completely forgiving his father for trashing his life back in Spokane is proving harder than he expected. Rough patches between father and son keep tensions high, and to complicate matters, Ben becomes convinced that the young neighbor boy is the victim of dangerous abuse. Ben's efforts to seek justice for the boy create a whole new set of problems.
It is almost impossible to turn the pages fast enough in THE LAST EXIT TO NORMAL. Michael Harmon's protagonist is one-of-a-kind. Readers will root for him one minute and against him the next as they experience his struggle to accept what life has dealt him. Harmon has truly captured the torrent of emotions raging along that divide between boyhood and manhood. Don't miss this one!
Life was going along just fine for Ben Campbell until he hit fourteen. That was the year his father announced that he was gay and his mother left. His dad's boyfriend moved in, and Ben started counseling -- and also misbehaving.
Now, after three years of run-ins with the law, Ben's dad has decided the only way to save Ben is to leave Spokane. At age seventeen, city boy Ben finds himself living in Rough Butte, Montana. Edward, who Ben calls Momdad, has agreed to take them back to the hometown he left when he was Ben's age. In Rough Butte, Ben is surrounded by homophobic cowboys, Edward's acid-tongued mother, Miss Mae, and an abusive neighbor with a strange young son.
Used to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, quickly ends for Ben as Miss Mae schools him in acceptable country behavior. She expects respect and hard work, and she doesn't hesitate to use her wooden spoon as a weapon to encourage it. Ben reluctantly falls in line and even finds it rewarding at times. His father and Edward seem pleased for the most part, and his improved attitude and behavior are useful in his quest to attract the attention of the beautiful girl living just four doors down the street.
There are still frustrations for Ben. Completely forgiving his father for trashing his life back in Spokane is proving harder than he expected. Rough patches between father and son keep tensions high, and to complicate matters, Ben becomes convinced that the young neighbor boy is the victim of dangerous abuse. Ben's efforts to seek justice for the boy create a whole new set of problems.
It is almost impossible to turn the pages fast enough in THE LAST EXIT TO NORMAL. Michael Harmon's protagonist is one-of-a-kind. Readers will root for him one minute and against him the next as they experience his struggle to accept what life has dealt him. Harmon has truly captured the torrent of emotions raging along that divide between boyhood and manhood. Don't miss this one!
It's been a really long time since I've either given up on a book or disliked it so much that I couldn't even hate-read it through to the end.
Ben is the protagonist who's father came home one day and announced he was gay. Mom walked out--which just effed up. Ben, having had his world fall apart, goes full-on delinquent, alcohol, drugs, general terrible behavior. After a while dad forced them into therapy, they have some breakthroughs. Things get a lot better, not perfect, but better. Ben cleans up his act and has even gotten used to his stepdad, whom he calls momdad, even if he doesn't love the situation. He has one slip-up and they decided it's a good idea to move a teenaged city boy to the middle of nowhere Montana.
So we're talking two gay men moving back to one's hometown--the town he moved away from for very good reason, and they bring their son/stepson with them. They move into his childhood home with his mother, who doesn't like that her son his gay, but he's still her son, so there's that.
Bonnie Mae, or Miss Mae, is old school country, respect is demanded, manners are insisted upon, no cussing or sarcasm, beatings and/or starvation as punishment. Yeah great idea for a smart-assed teenager with two dads.
This books is just a mess. Verbal threats, physical abuse, starvation, and forcing Ben to sleep in the woodshed. And this is all from Miss Mae. And dad just sits back and lets this woman do this to his child. Like, what?! I don't care what lame excuse you want to use, "they do things different," "she's from a different time," "we're guests in her home." I'll be damned if I let someone lay a hand on my child. You'd best not even discipline my child, especially if I'm close enough to be called to handle a situation.
Miss Mae is an asshole. Dad is an asshole. Ben is an asshole. The only one who's decent is Edward, who willingly came back to the town that tortured him throughout his childhood, just to help his partner's child stay on the straight and narrow. The neighbor is also an abusive, homophobic asshole, who beats the living daylights out of his son because Ben was talking to him, even after the boy told Ben to leave him alone, even after Ben told the man that he had approached the boy who didn't want to talk to him.
I didn't think I would finish it because I didn't even care if there was character growth or a redemption arc. But I toyed with the idea of slogging through it anyway. And then the little neighbor boy shot a stray cat just because. That's it. Just. Because.
I "noped" out of that book and cannot recommend anyone to read it.
Ben is the protagonist who's father came home one day and announced he was gay. Mom walked out--which just effed up. Ben, having had his world fall apart, goes full-on delinquent, alcohol, drugs, general terrible behavior. After a while dad forced them into therapy, they have some breakthroughs. Things get a lot better, not perfect, but better. Ben cleans up his act and has even gotten used to his stepdad, whom he calls momdad, even if he doesn't love the situation. He has one slip-up and they decided it's a good idea to move a teenaged city boy to the middle of nowhere Montana.
So we're talking two gay men moving back to one's hometown--the town he moved away from for very good reason, and they bring their son/stepson with them. They move into his childhood home with his mother, who doesn't like that her son his gay, but he's still her son, so there's that.
Bonnie Mae, or Miss Mae, is old school country, respect is demanded, manners are insisted upon, no cussing or sarcasm, beatings and/or starvation as punishment. Yeah great idea for a smart-assed teenager with two dads.
This books is just a mess. Verbal threats, physical abuse, starvation, and forcing Ben to sleep in the woodshed. And this is all from Miss Mae. And dad just sits back and lets this woman do this to his child. Like, what?! I don't care what lame excuse you want to use, "they do things different," "she's from a different time," "we're guests in her home." I'll be damned if I let someone lay a hand on my child. You'd best not even discipline my child, especially if I'm close enough to be called to handle a situation.
Miss Mae is an asshole. Dad is an asshole. Ben is an asshole. The only one who's decent is Edward, who willingly came back to the town that tortured him throughout his childhood, just to help his partner's child stay on the straight and narrow. The neighbor is also an abusive, homophobic asshole, who beats the living daylights out of his son because Ben was talking to him, even after the boy told Ben to leave him alone, even after Ben told the man that he had approached the boy who didn't want to talk to him.
I didn't think I would finish it because I didn't even care if there was character growth or a redemption arc. But I toyed with the idea of slogging through it anyway. And then the little neighbor boy shot a stray cat just because. That's it. Just. Because.
I "noped" out of that book and cannot recommend anyone to read it.
