Book Reviews: Gay Teen Vampires, Jake Shears Naked, and a Gay Man Sails Around the World

The good news about The Boy Behind the Gate by Larry Jacobson (Buoy Press, $27.95), a memoir about a gay man's actual five-year journey around the world by sailboat, is that it includes a wealth of detail about the journey, taken from actual emails and journal entries written during the journey itself.

The bad news about The Boy Behind the Gate is this wealth of detail.

On one hand, you have a very real sense of what Larry went though, the problems big and (mostly) small that a person might encounter on a journey sailing around the world.

On the other hand, the book isn't a "story," with a theme and a beginning, middle, and end, so much as a list of actual chronological events, some admittedly interesting, others not so much.

Worse, there isn't a enough detail about some of the most interesting things in the book, like Larry's relationship with Ken, the "friend" who "temporarily" joins him on his round-the-world trip after his long-time partner Bob says he isn't interested in going. Temporary turns into five years, and the two are boyfriends most of the way. But Larry never gives us a sense of who Ken is, or tells us plainly how this love develops.

Meanwhile, Larry also meets other men along the way, who he incorporates into his "family," but apart from a line or two about "spreading love," we get no detail about how these love affairs work exactly — and how they fit into Larry's existing relationships with both Ken and Bob. Frankly, I was really, really curious to know how this worked out — or didn't.

Too personal? Maybe, but that's what a memoir is.

There's a lot of "telling," not "showing," in this book because Jacobson is clearly not a professional writer. On the other hand, this is precisely the book's charm, its straightforward, "everyman" quality. All his life, Jacobson dreamed of sailing around the world, and what do you know? He did! And rather than paint a chilling, vivid picture about it like, say, Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger might, or go into a lot of detail pondering what it all "means" the way Barbara Kingsolver would, Jacobson gives us something that reads very much like actual diaries and actual emails to friends — because that's what these entries are.

If you're into sailing, either actually or vicariously, this is absolutely a book for you. Everyone else? Maybe not so much.

I was determined to hate Unnatural, the first book in the Archangel Academy series by Michael Griffo (Kensington Books $9.95), because, let's face it, there isn't a gay teen book author on earth who hasn't thought, "I should totally write a gay teen vampire novel! I'll make a killing!" Only to follow that thought with another one, a second later: "Oh, please. A gay teen vampire novel now? Any teen vampire novel now? How derivative and obvious is that?"

But hey, someone had to do it, and Griffo is the one who did. So how's the book?

Could be better, but also could be worse.

Closeted teen Michael doesn't fit in in his backwater Nebraska town, so when his mother dies, he flies off to join his father in England where he enrolls in Archangel Academy, which simply couldn't be more different than his old high school. For one thing, here he's appreciated as the stunningly brilliant, incredibly hot teen he is — and he's surrounded by other teens, each more exotic than the last, including Ronan, with whom Michael instantly develops a boundless, mutual bond that would last for all eternity ... if only that was possible.

And what do you know? It just might be possible, because Ronan has a secret. More importantly, Ronan wants to share that secret with Michael. (Actually, he has several secrets, one of which is that he's not just any vampire — Ronan is actually a hybrid vampire that's part of an "outcast" vampire clan, just one part of the complicated politics of Archangel Academy.)

There are two problems here: first, we've seen all this many times before. A war between vampires? An ageless, perfect love between a teenager and a vampire?

Sure, this is the "gay" version of this oft-told story, but shouldn't the "gay" version be more than just the straight version with gay characters? (And for the record? I didn't buy at all the idea that this vampire who's seen and done it all would be so utterly fascinated by this other actual teenager, except maybe for the teenager's "refreshing" innocence and naivete, although that's not really the attraction here. Then again, I've never bought this dynamic in any other teen vampire series either.)

The second problem is that the pace is too slow. Unnatural is just the first book in a trilogy. It reads like the dreaded "set up" novel, putting in place the story for the major action still to come — but 500 pages is a lot of set up.

What did I like about it? Well, the book firmly embraces its Gothic roots both in its melodramatic plot and (sometimes) in the writing itself; Chapter One begins very effectively by tracing a single bead of perspiration down a forehead. (I wish there had been a lot more of these over-the-top writing flourishes, frankly. When in Rome!)

And like Twilight, Unnatural is an easy, breezy read, despite the length (I'd say that Unnatural is actually considerably better written than Twilight, but that's not saying anything at all).

All in all, if you're a teen vampire fanatic, you could probably do worse.

IN STORES NOW

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: The Book by Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Zack Whedon (Titan Books, $19.95) is a feast for fans of the internet sensation, with the full script, factoids, sheet music, and a "roundtable" interview with the principals on the making of the project. It also includes an Afterward by the star, Neil Patrick Harris, who says plainly, "Dr. Horrible is the single best thing that I've ever done."

Fans of singers Jake Shears and/or Rufus Wainwright may be interested in two new books of photography, One Day in the Life of Jake Shears and One Day in the Life of Rufus Wainwright by Tim Hailand (Hailand Books, $35). Both feature photos of their respective stars going through their day, from early morning until lights out. A portion of the (high) cover price goes to charity. Check out some photos (including photos of a previous installment featuring Daniel Radcliffe).

Crossover: Straight Men, Gay Encounters by Robert Joseph Greene (Icon Empire Press, $7.99, available as e-book only) is a brief book of eight short stories, mostly bisexual-related. It's not erotica, and I liked the fact that it involves African American characters (but wasn't "about" being black). But most of the stories are slight, it's poorly edited, and the writing is hit-and-miss.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Daw Books, $16) isn't "gay" in any way, but it's the best epic fantasy I've read since early George R. R. Martin. Better still, the second book in the series is just out! (It debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list, and I started reading it last night.)