Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: To the Boys Who Wear Pink
AUTHOR: Revan Badingham III
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 266 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 17, 2020
BLURB:
“We are the boys who wear pink. We eat trauma for breakfast, we puke it out to fit into our skinny jeans and leather jackets.”
High school reunions were always a bitch. Especially if you’re one of the boys invited to Ryan’s party. Do you live it up with King and the Trouble Twins? Are you still cool enough to chug beer with basketball jocks Si and Badger? Or do you cower in the corner with mild-mannered Reyes and Angelo, the social outcast?
Also, who hired the stripper?
The night is endless. Watch twenty-four stories tangle as the boys reconnect, fight, reminisce, fall in love, fall out of love, get drunk, get high, get laid, and deal with a shared tragedy in their past.
REVIEW:
It’s difficult to describe this book, as it’s so different to the ones I’ve read lately. It’s not a romance, for sure, although there are romances woven into it.
The book follows a group of friends at a birthday party, reuniting some years after leaving school. There is a core group of friends who are all closely linked, who are then orbited by new faces, including a young stripper.
Various themes run through the book, linking everyone together, including a mysterious accident that took place either when they were at school or shortly after. I’m not sure I ever figured out the exact details of the accident but maybe that was the point and it’s not really relevant—I know enough.
The style of writing tool a little getting used to, as it jumped around a lot. I liked it because it was a good vehicle for the kind of reflection the characters went through. The action takes place entirely during the party, but the real meat of the story is in the reminiscing. Each character describes their current existence—the party, their lives, their hopes and dreams etc. They also indulge in memories of their glory days which they realize were neither as glorious nor as terrible as they had built them up to be.
There is a truly impressive cast of characters and huge kudos to the author for finding so many real and disparate people and giving them highly distinctive voices. The setting is equally vivid and I was easily able to picture where each person was, what they were doing and with whom.
The party gets off to a slow start, but believe me, by the end it was no-holds-barred and one heck of a ride.
I don’t want to give any spoilers at all because there is so much going on that is so closely interwoven, it would be unfair to pick any of it apart. All I will say is that I shed a tear at the end, and for me, the Ryan who gave the closing speech wasn’t the same man who squeezed himself into slightly too-small jeans at the beginning.
The writing is beautifully elegant and mature and I would be at a loss to point to any technical errors. As I said, the style won’t be to everyone’s taste, and this one required thought, which might not be your cup of tea if you’re looking for escapism. Gritty realism, on the other hand, it has in plenty.
I very much enjoyed the book, and I both rejoiced with and hurt for all the characters, who were each beautifully broken in their own ways. Although it’s not an easy read, it’s a rewarding one and I would heartily recommend to anyone who wants something a bit more serious but still very entertaining.
RATING: 
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