Day 13
Reviewed by Tara
TITLE: My You
AUTHOR: Tamer Lorika
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 17 pages
BLURB:
Adrian Delgado’s time in the Peace Corps has been rewarding, but with Christmas around the corner, he is starting to get homesick. Life in Mongolia is very different from Texas, from the holiday celebrations to… dating. Take his coworker Batbayar, for instance—they’ve slept together several times and spend most time outside of work in each other’s houses. But are they “together,” or friends with benefits? Maybe a Mongolian Christmas and a sheep’s head in the bathtub can lead to the answer.
REVIEW:
In My You, we meet Adrian Delgado a 5th grade teacher of English in the Peace Corps, who is stationed in Mongolia where he is having his first Christmas away from his Texas family. After speaking with his mom Lena, he begins to feel homesick. The gifts sent from his mom are just not enough to make the cold blue sky of Mongolia feel like home. Christmas just isn’t the same as it is in America. But Adrian is determined to be okay and in doing so he stays close with fellow 9th grade English teacher, and Mongolian native Batbayar. Bataa has wormed his way into Adrian’s life first as a friend then as a drunken lover. Since every liason has been because they drunk first, had sex later, Adrian is unsure of where he stands in Bataa’s life. After speaking with his mother, Adrian meets Bataa and discovers a surprise celebration. Bataa and his friends throw Adrian their own version of Christmas, with his very own sheep head as the main course. It is in this night that Adrian finds the answers he seeks.
I really can’t give too much away. This is an incredibly brief read at just seventeen pages, and because of this you can’t quite get a good feel of the characters. The main issue of course the romantic feel between Bataa and Adrian. Although I know this is supposed to be a short read, I believe a couple more pages showing the relationship between the two should have been done better. The sexual aspect had that bromance vibe to it and yes I realize that not every story will have that HOT factor, this just felt flat to me. There are cute moments, of course mainly how Bataa goes out of his way to make Adrian feel more at home by throwing the Christmas party, and having the place decorated. How he visits him every day after school and they spend time together playing cards or just talking. Other than that it didn’t really interest me. I wouldn’t recommend this just based on the incomplete feel to the story and the disconnect to the characters.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Thank you for the review!
It looks like longer might have worked better, though I usually like a terse story…