Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Finding Beck
AUTHOR: Louise Lyons
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 91 pages
BLURB:
Martin Lynch has spent the past few years following his best friend Graham’s example, dressing up to go out to their favorite rock club on Friday nights, and going through the motions with girls, always missing that spark everyone talks about.
One night in Jezebels nightclub on Martin’s twentieth birthday, he meets Beck, an androgynous person he initially tries to tell himself is “Becky”. But eventually when Martin feels that excitement he’s never experienced before and the evidence becomes too much to ignore, he’s forced to admit to himself that Beck is a man and accept that he could be gay.
Martin fears the reactions of his best friend and his parents, but in his heart he knows that finding Beck has given him the one thing that’s always been missing, and he prepares to deal with the reactions of family and friends when their secret is discovered.
REVIEW:
Finding Beck is a sweet tale of boy meets girl who turns out to be a boy. Boy then discovers that he doesn’t care that girl turns out to be a boy. Boy next realizes that what had been missing in his love/sex life was another boy. Martin had never felt like he connected to the women he met and occasionally had sex with. He especially never got “that feeling” from the woman he fooled around with, not like his best friend and flat mate Graham bragged about. Enter Beck, an androgynous male who Martin first thinks is a girl. This is all set in England in the early 90’s when unisex clothes were all the kids wore to the clubs. Boys and girls alike wore makeup, spandex and big hair. I personally was home having and raising children and missed the whole glam rock generation. This was a cute way of introduction for me to the life and times of the British youth and their clubbing and dating rituals.
I enjoyed the sweet way that the two men started out in their exploration of Martin’s newly discovered sexuality. Beck was understandably caution with Martin. He had a rough go of it with his first “relationship” as a gay teen and was nervous that this was just an “experiment” for Martin. But Martin figured out really quickly that this was the real deal and he wanted Beck for his boyfriend. I especially loved that both men were nervous about coming out to their friends and family. Graham and his girlfriend Tracy were a fun part of their inner group. I loved when Graham blew it with Tracy and Beck was giving him advice on how to deal with the sensitive matter with Tracy. Beck’s cousin Nicky and his Aunt and Uncle were fabulous as was Martin’s mom. I could have throttled both of Beck’s parents and their homophobic nature as well as Martin’s dad. Christmas was a special treat. I will say the book ended a bit abruptly. I would have liked to have seen where the relationship was going from here on. Overall it was a fun, quick read.
RATING: 
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