I picked up a copy of Steve Berman's first novel, Vintage: A Ghost Story
(Lethe Press 2007) at Darkovercon as one of the thank-you freebies for helping break down the art show. I seem to be reading a lot of young adult fiction lately, but this book is unusual in being a sensitive and convincing gay adolescent romance combined with a genuinely creepy ghost story.
The nameless first-person narrator is a teenage Goth, a high school dropout and runaway who now lives with an aunt and works in a vintage clothing shop run by the dashing alcoholic Malvern. He has a circle of female friends, led by the beautiful, black-clad Trace, all of them suffering from various degrees with family drama and coming-of-age issues of sexuality and romance, but has never so much as kissed another boy. So he is delighted to find his interest in handsome football player Josh returned...except for the small detail of Josh having been dead for fifty years. All the characters are beautifully drawn: alienated, Ecstasy-popping, closeted lesbian Liz; death- and occult-obsessed Trace with her habit of attending random funerals; Aunt Jan with her hopelessly inept cooking; the unexpectedly artistic Second Mike; and more.
Berman builds a fascinating story out of the narrator's struggles with
the dangers (physical and emotional) of his affair with the phantom Josh,
the growing collection of unhappy ghosts drawn by his talents as a medium, and his suppressed attraction to Trace's younger brother. The simultaneous menace and pathos of the ghosts and the realistic problems of the present combine for a gripping story that feels true to the unusual, non-mainstream teenagers I've encountered over the last decade or so. I recommend the book for young adults of all orientations as well as less-young adults interested in a queer speculative fiction or in a spooky little tale that effectively captures the conflicts and culture of another generation. It was, deservedly, a 2007 finalist for the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy.
Update 1/24/09, from Steve Berman's website:
1/5 of the royalties from Vintage will be
donated to charities helping gay teens: 10% will be donated to the GSA
Network, which assists Gay-Straight Student
Alliances in high schools; another 10% donated to the Trevor
Project, which works to prevent suicide among gay youth.
Visit Steve Berman's website and/or read for yourself (shopping in a good cause):
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