Reviewed by Chris
Retro Review by Donna
TITLE: Us Three
SERIES: One Voice #1
AUTHOR: Mia Kerick
PUBLISHER: Harmony Ink Press
LENGTH: 180 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2014
BLURB:
In his junior year at a public high school, sweet, bright Casey Minton’s biggest worry isn’t being gay. Keeping from being too badly bullied by his so-called friends, a group of girls called the Queen Bees, is more pressing. Nate De Marco has no friends, his tough home life having taken its toll on his reputation, but he’s determined to get through high school. Zander Zane’s story is different: he’s popular, a jock. Zander knows he’s gay, but fellow students don’t, and he’d like to keep it that way.
No one expects much when these three are grouped together for a class project, yet in the process the boys discover each other’s talents and traits, and a new bond forms. But what if Nate, Zander, and Casey fall in love—each with the other and all three together? Not only gay but also a threesome, for them high school becomes infinitely more complicated and maybe even dangerous. To survive and keep their love alive, they must find their individual strengths and courage and stand together, honest and united. If they can do that, they might prevail against the Queen Bees and a student body frightened into silence—and even against their own crippling fears.
RETRO REVIEW:
Mia Kerick is probably my favourite young adult author in this genre. In my opinion she always manages to instill an appropriate level of immaturity in her teens while still giving them a depth of character that makes a romance credible. Somehow it took me four and a half years to get to this book! How the heck did that happen!? But now that I’ve read it I intend to rush straight out and buy the sequel. Thank you to my fellow reviewer, Chris, for letting me steal his original words to use for my retro review.
REVIEW:
I don’t read young adult stories all that much, but it is stories like this one that make me willing to try. I’m not a big fan of teen angst and just all the crap that comes with being a teenager–I had more than my share when I was growing up and I try my best to distance myself from that part of my life–but there is something about a well written story that gets me every time. Stories that are written to mean something, that deal with the real issues of teenagerhood–and not just the perils of falling in love with sparkly vampires (glitter. everywhere.)—are worth crossing my normal boundaries for. Ok…I also love a good three-way story, but while that might have been the hook, the story of what they three teens had to deal with is what kept me. And left me desperately wanting more.
This book was written from the perspective of all three of our MCs: Casey Minton, Nate De Marco, and Zander Zane. They are all juniors at Benjamin Franklin High School, though before they get put into a group for a project in their Survey of French class, they were about as likely to interact as Liz Trainer (Queen bitch Bee) was likely to take up petting orphan children as a hobby. But fates (or French teachers) intervened, and their lives would never be the same.
Casey
“It’s not just what happened today. It’s every day… nobody gets me there. I don’t fit in at Benjamin Franklin High.”
Any more than Wendy fits in with the Lost Boys….
Or Clay Aiken fits in at a Metallica concert….
Or Grey Poupon mustard fits in a peanut butter sandwich….
Or… well, face it, I could go on forever, but I thought I’d spare the effort and stop there.
Casey is the center of the story. What happens to him, what he does, and what he chooses to be and do, is what fuels the action here. Not that the others don’t have their own shit to deal with, but Casey is taking the brunt of hate and bullying, and it is that that draws the others to him.
In 9th grade Casey was assaulted by a pack of girls, taunted, hurt, and at the point losing it completely, his parents decided to take him out of school and let him be homeschooled instead. But for his junior year they have decided to send him back. Much to his horror. If anything the bullying is worse, more hateful, more twisted, and he has no idea how he is even going to get thru the year, let alone the rest of his high school career.
He sections of the story are probably the most angst filled. And they have a way of breaking my heart into sizable chunks. No one should have to go thru what he did. No one, for no reason, should be tormented like this. And that the adults in his life let it happen, let it continue, is something I will never understand. I have had a lot of issues with this, myself. With the hurtful way that supposed ‘friends’ can turn on you. My middle school years were pretty much hell for me. Maybe this is why Casey affects me so much. Why I get him so easily. I wasn’t dealing with sexual identity issues, but god, I was trying desperately to get thru each day while it felt like everyone I trusted had turned into evil banshees. That struggle to survive, to have to survive something like that just because you are different, is portrayed so very well here.
Nate
I’m no talker, not that I’m some wise old owl who sits up there in the oak tree watchin’ and thinkin’ and figurin’ shit out. Not him either. I’m just the smart motherfucker who’s already put it together that the shit hits the fan way the fuck less when I keep my goddamned trap shut. And I learned my lesson the friggin’ toughest way possible…
Nate’s life is not easy. Or nice. His mom’s in jail, his uncle–who Nate and his little sis are staying with–is an abusive asshole, and everyone in school thinks he is a loser and one scary-ass-dude. He doesn’t have friends, he’s just trying to get thru school without getting too badly crushed in the process. Nate doesn’t know what it is about Casey that makes him want to protect the guy, but…he wants to anyways. He’s big, he can make the other kids back down, and Casey seems to appreciate that. And him. And while he wishes that Zane would get off his ass and do something about the crazy bitches tormenting Casey, Nate is also starting to see something worth having around in the popular jock.
If I had to pick a favorite out of the three guys, it would probably be Nate. Casey has my heart, but god, Nate has my respect. The man has had some tough shit going on in his life, but he has not let it make him into a hateful person. He has his anger issues (boy does he) but he tries to do good. To protect, not break down. It felt, at times, like he could have easily been left at the sides by Casey and Zane, but he became the foundation that the others used to ground themselves. And while they were doing that, Nate used the other two to find some type of hope, some type of life worth living in his messed up world.
His section was told in diary entries, and while this has never been my favorite method of storytelling, I have to say it made Nate seem more honest. More real. He wasn’t holding anything back, he didn’t try to hide from himself or from other people, because this was just who he was. The good, the bad, the fucking complicated. Like all three of these guys, his voice and his perspective was wholly his own, and it is one of the things I love about this story. These guys stand out from each other, even as they try and deal with some of the same things.
Zane
So yeah, you’re right—sometimes you need to stand up and shut it down when you see this kind of crap going on. But, besides not wanting those girls to start slinging their shit at me, I felt sort of stuck in the middle, you know? The girls go to all of the parties I go to, and one of them, the leader of the pack, Liz, is dating Jake. How am I supposed to put her in her place when she’s my best pal’s girlfriend?
If there was going to be one guy that would be considered the ‘well adjusted’ one, it would be Zane. But looks can be deceiving. Sure he is popular, and no one is actively trying to beat him down, but there is a lot about Zane’s life that is not so cool. His mother has basically checked out of his life, leaving him to raise himself. He has an awesome brother, but he is away at college, and emails and the occasional phone call aren’t exactly the solution to his lack of a home life. Especially when he finds himself falling for a guy—two guys–and has no idea how to handle it. Not to mention he has pretty much figured out he is a freaking coward, since he can’t seem to find the balls to protect the guys he is falling for. Popularity is a fleeting thing, especially when you are trying to stand up for what is right.
Oh, Zane. How I want to shake you. And shake your hand. While the other two are dealing with some pretty heavy outside problems, a lot of Zane’s issues come from inside. He knows what is the right thing to do. He knows. But god, it is hard to step outside of his safe little box and do something, anything. His struggle to come out, and to man up, is something that I think we can all identify with. It is so damn easy to sit back and simply let things happen. You may not be a part of the problem, but being a part of the solution is not exactly a walk in the park. And it takes a lot of guts to try. I like how Zane went about it as well.
Like with Nate’s sections, Zane’s is told in a way that is normally not my thing. But the emails he sends to his brother in college are just as good as Casey and Nate’s povs. Not only does it show his connection to his brother, but it gives us a look into just how hard he trying to change, to be a better man. Someone his brother would be proud of. Hell, that Zane would be proud of. And I think it was cool that he was the catalyst for the whole relationship between the three. Who knows how long they would have been circling each other if he hadn’t just manned up and declared his crush on the other two. He is all about the motion of the story, even if that motion is hard fought and slow to begin with.
The relationship that is built here, between these three guys was very well written. It wasn’t an instant lust thing–hell two of the guys didn’t even really identify as gay till the whole thing started to snowball–but the way they worked it out, and how they are with each other, was just great. And I think the way this story is told, with the alternating povs, helped us see just where everyone was coming from. And what they really wanted. I like that it was three guys coming together and falling together, and not a couple finding a third–mostly because those are hella complicated on top of all the normal complications that come with this type of relationship. I am a sucker for a good three-way relationship, and this story just worked right into my sweet spot. There is not a lot of the sex part of their relationship, seeing as this is YA and those generally don’t go all hot and heavy on us, but the romance was sweet enough for me to not feel the loss.
The Queen Bees in this story were a little over the top, I must admit. Granted, I know just how terrifying and awful chicks can get (especially ones that have claimed to be your ‘friends’ in the past), but this was like crazy awful, how they were acting. And I don’t know why the adults in this school even have their jobs anymore ‘cause if you are letting this happen, right under your nose, you suck. I get that teachers are not superhuman, and cannot do all things for all people, but this is in-your-face bullying of the worst kind, and if you are not even trying, I have no sympathy for you. Though, I personally think if you decide to teach in high school you should be carried around on a lounge chair and lauded with praise for it (not to mention given a goddamn decent paycheck)–teens are evil and crazy and I have no desire to get within 100 ft of them, let alone try and teach and guide them.
Even for a book that had several thing I don’t normally like (YA, letter/diary storytelling, over-the-top villains), the story that is told, and the way it is told, worked really well. I was kinda disappointed when it ended because I want…no, I need to know what happens to these guys. Their story is only just beginning and with all the problems they are going to face–being gay in high school can suck, but throw in their unconventional three person relationship and you’ve got yourself a heap of issues barreling down on you–and I would love to see them face it together. So this is me, on my (metaphorical) knees, begging you, Mia Kerick, to please, please, pleeeaaaassssseeeee give us a sequel to this story. If it is not too much trouble. I’d offer to bake you cupcakes or something, but my baking skills kinda suck, and that is not exactly the best way to go about bribing people.
Really, you should read this book. Even if young-adult isn’t your thang. It is a highly entertaining story, with some great characters, and a truly lovely romance between the three of them. And the while the bullying felt sometimes a little over the top, I think it does a lot to show just how traumatizing the verbal/mental aspect of bullying can be on people. And how it isn’t just the dudes who can break you down–girls can be just as vicious. And both, given a chance, can be just as kind.
RATING: 
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