Author Robin Reardon has an incredible knack for Young Adult storytelling and character development, and like her previous novels, her latest page-turner, "Throwing Stones," features a gay teen at the forefront who learns during his own journey of self-discovery how much we are all products of our environments.
Narrator Jesse Bryce lives in a small Oklahoma town with his church-going parents and older brother, Stu. When he comes out to his family, their immediate reaction is far from warm and accepting -- especially Stu's. Thankfully, the news makes no difference to his best friend and teammate, Brad, who has his own problems at home.
Like any typical high school teen, Jesse has a crush on one of his classmates, Griffin. Unfortunately, Griffin is not only straight but he lives in a pagan community, known as "the village," where rumor has it they practice witchcraft, live like vampires and engage in un-Christian behavior.
When a village member is killed while trying to protect a girl from harm, the towns are divided even further, but as Jesse becomes better acquainted with his pagan neighbors, who don't care about his sexual orientation, he makes it his mission to bring the communities together, while trying to help his family accept the fact that he's gay.
The many wonderful, intriguing dimensions to this novel are customary of Reardon's superlative writing and what make this and her other works so engaging. At the core, Jesse's coming out presents the familiar struggle of a gay teen -- religious, on-the-defensive parents, a stoic sibling and bullying at school. His infatuation with Griffin results in Jesse's first encounter with rejection, which fortuitously leads him to another villager, Ronan, with whom he shares the same feelings and desires.
The religious rivalry ingeniously represents fear of the unknown and its disruptive culpability. Granted, we're not talking about the Salem Witch Trials here, but there is a longstanding reason why these communities remain separate, and when it comes to light, the author reminds us how important it is to integrate tradition with evolution. The same, of course, can be said of Jesse's family coming to terms with his sexual preference, as well as our country's recognition of same-sex marriage.
Jesse, Griffin, Brad and Stu are all quintessential examples of how young minds are ultimately responsible for shaping the future, and "Throwing Stones" makes not just for an emotive, entertaining read, but a parable of the limitless ways young hearts and minds influence how we live.
I have to be honest; I have yet to read one of Robin Reardon's books without falling in love with the book, and "Throwing Stones" is no exception. All of her books have a strong gay characters that are trying to come to terms with their own feelings and dealing with friends/family/communities as they are in the process of coming out. But she also tackles other themes that are in the forefront of our society today: transgender issues (Educating Simon), Intelligent Design and mental illness (Evolution of Ethan Poe), and fundamentalist religion (The Revelations of Jude Conner- a special favorite as it is set in Idaho where I live). Her novels use the other issues to address the themes of hatred, discrimination, ostracism, and acceptance. These issues are then used to also show how the gay population in our country is treated in similar fashion. Her newest novel, "Throwing Stones," is no exception and is a great addition to Ms. Reardon's canon. As in many of her other books, religion and its part in our society, both positive and negative, takes a central role.
"Throwing Stones" is the story of Jesse Birch, a teenager living in a small town in south-eastern Oklahoma. Jesse finds himself falling head-over-heels for Griffin Holyoke, a hot, young fellow classmate. The problem is that Griffin is from the "village," a group of Pagans that live in a community on the southern edge of Jesse's small town. The people of the "village" have been accused of everything from vampirism and child-stealing to witchcraft and devil-worship. As Jesse spends more time with Griffin and his "people" he begins to realize that these stories are completely wrong. When his affection for Griffin, who is straight, are not returned Jesse turns his attention to another dark and brooding young man in the village, Ronan, who does return Jesse's interest. As the story progesses, Jesse tries to get his conservative family to understand both his homosexuality and the truth behind the people of the village. Along with the daughter of his church's minister, Jesse forms a student group at his school as an attempt to bridge the gap of misinformation between the two communities. The leaders of the town and the village also get in on Jesse's mission to bring the two groups together. As the contacts between the townies and the villagers increase, incidents of vandalism and violence increase threatening not only Jesse, but his friends and family as well. And through it all, Jesse is trying to work through his relationship with Ronan, who doesn't agree with Jesse's attempts to bring the two communities closer.
One of the great strengths of Robin's books is the depth of research she must do in order to be able to talk about these issues in such great detail. (Its also why we have to wait SO LONG between the release of her new novels!) Whether its dealing with the topic of Paganism and what it IS and ISN'T, talking about rockhounding in south-eastern Oklahoma, or describing the process of setting up a controversial school club (in this case a TVA,a town-village alliance, as opposed to a GSA, a gay-straight alliance), her books are always full of pertinent information necessary for the story without being so overly detailed as to cause the story to drag. I always learn something when reading her books.
Many of the other reviews talked about the amount and graphicness of the sex scenes in Throwing Stones. Personally, I didn't find it to have a greater amount or more graphic sex than many other YA novels written today. If you add all of the "sex scenes" together they add up to slightly over 2 pages of an more than 300 page novel. As a teacher of high school freshman, many of the books my students are reading have as much sex, or more, as this book. I wonder if the issue has to do with the fact that it is gay sex that is described and we still are a bit more concerned over its description in YA novels than straight sex. I wouldn't put this book in a junior high library, but think it is fine as a high school YA novel. But I will admit, I do tend to be more liberal on this topic than some.
In conclusion, I loved Robin Reardon's new novel. Now I just have to wait a year or so for her next one.
One last comment, I absolutely LOVED the cover on this book. It is the best cover on any of her books. I know that doesn't have anything to do with the story, but wanted to congratulate Ms. Reardon for a great choice.
I have to be honest; I have yet to read one of Robin Reardon's books without falling in love with the book, and "Throwing Stones" is no exception. All of her books have a strong gay characters that are trying to come to terms with their own feelings and dealing with friends/family/communities as they are in the process of coming out. But she also tackles other themes that are in the forefront of our society today: transgender issues (Educating Simon), Intelligent Design and mental illness (Evolution of Ethan Poe), and fundamentalist religion (The Revelations of Jude Conner- a special favorite as it is set in Idaho where I live). Her novels use the other issues to address the themes of hatred, discrimination, ostracism, and acceptance. These issues are then used to also show how the gay population in our country is treated in similar fashion. Her newest novel, "Throwing Stones," is no exception and is a great addition to Ms. Reardon's canon. As in many of her other books, religion and its part in our society, both positive and negative, takes a central role.
"Throwing Stones" is the story of Jesse Birch, a teenager living in a small town in south-eastern Oklahoma. Jesse finds himself falling head-over-heels for Griffin Holyoke, a hot, young fellow classmate. The problem is that Griffin is from the "village," a group of Pagans that live in a community on the southern edge of Jesse's small town. The people of the "village" have been accused of everything from vampirism and child-stealing to witchcraft and devil-worship. As Jesse spends more time with Griffin and his "people" he begins to realize that these stories are completely wrong. When his affection for Griffin, who is straight, are not returned Jesse turns his attention to another dark and brooding young man in the village, Ronan, who does return Jesse's interest. As the story progesses, Jesse tries to get his conservative family to understand both his homosexuality and the truth behind the people of the village. Along with the daughter of his church's minister, Jesse forms a student group at his school as an attempt to bridge the gap of misinformation between the two communities. The leaders of the town and the village also get in on Jesse's mission to bring the two groups together. As the contacts between the townies and the villagers increase, incidents of vandalism and violence increase threatening not only Jesse, but his friends and family as well. And through it all, Jesse is trying to work through his relationship with Ronan, who doesn't agree with Jesse's attempts to bring the two communities closer.
One of the great strengths of Robin's books is the depth of research she must do in order to be able to talk about these issues in such great detail. (Its also why we have to wait SO LONG between the release of her new novels!) Whether its dealing with the topic of Paganism and what it IS and ISN'T, talking about rockhounding in south-eastern Oklahoma, or describing the process of setting up a controversial school club (in this case a TVA,a town-village alliance, as opposed to a GSA, a gay-straight alliance), her books are always full of pertinent information necessary for the story without being so overly detailed as to cause the story to drag. I always learn something when reading her books.
Many of the other reviews talked about the amount and graphicness of the sex scenes in Throwing Stones. Personally, I didn't find it to have a greater amount or more graphic sex than many other YA novels written today. If you add all of the "sex scenes" together they add up to slightly over 2 pages of an more than 300 page novel. As a teacher of high school freshman, many of the books my students are reading have as much sex, or more, as this book. I wonder if the issue has to do with the fact that it is gay sex that is described and we still are a bit more concerned over its description in YA novels than straight sex. I wouldn't put this book in a junior high library, but think it is fine as a high school YA novel. But I will admit, I do tend to be more liberal on this topic than some.
In conclusion, I loved Robin Reardon's new novel. Now I just have to wait a year or so for her next one.
One last comment, I absolutely LOVED the cover on this book. It is the best cover on any of her books. I know that doesn't have anything to do with the story, but wanted to congratulate Ms. Reardon for a great choice.
Readers of Robin Reardon's other work know what to expect by now: an endearing, well-developed, and introspective LGBTQ protagonist, a twisting plot worthy of the craziest telenovela, and deep explorations of myriad subjects highlighted by especially deep discussions of religious concerns. Oh, and frank and unapologetic depictions of teenage sex.
Throwing Stones falls squarely within this oeuvre and will not disappoint fans. This time we get to see a slice of rural Oklahoma, learn about rockhounding, survive a tornado, and experience Pagan life and rituals. Some previous themes from Reardon's novels reappear as well: high school bullies, Christian intolerance, spirit animals, and scrying have all featured prominently in earlier works. Reardon is adept at bringing disparate pieces like these together into a beautiful and compelling mosaic, and Throwing Stones is a perfect example.
Though the story gets off to a slow start, it's not long before the pages start flying by, the plot jumping breathlessly from scene to scene in unexpected directions. The strength of Reardon's work has always been her well-developed characters, and Throwing Stones has an especially large cast to balance. And yet, no character has been given short shrift, and even when their actions are unexpected, they're never unmotivated.
Jesse Bryce seems like a typical 17-year-old high student just coming out of the closet. He's only out to his best friend and still contemplating the right way to tell his conservative Christian family. A chance meeting with Griffin Holyoke under the bleachers during the high school's Thanksgiving football game seems like it might hold the answers. Though a fellow student, Griffin is very much an outsider in the close knit, rural town of Himlen, OK because he lives in "the village," a small Pagan community on the outskirts of town. Feeling the outsider himself, Jesse is drawn to learn more about Griffin and his way of life, and boy is there a lot to learn. Soon Jesse has made it his mission persuade the town to see the village in a new, non-threatening light, and maybe, just maybe, he'll also discover how to help his family see him in a new light as well.
Though it features a teenage protagonist like her previous novels, Throwing Stones is decidedly more adult than Reardon's previous work. She's always pushed the envelope in terms of depicting teenage sex, a welcome change in a genre that is often overly chaste, but some will find Throwing Stones goes a bit too far. It's definitely an R where earlier novels may have passed for PG-13. This isn't a problem, but it does mean this might be inappropriate for younger readers.
If you are fan of Reardon's other work, I highly recommend Throwing Stones. If you are new to her novels, I suggest starting with an earlier novel like the excellent The Evolution of Ethan Poe, which explores many similar themes but with a lighter touch, before taking on Throwing Stones. Either way, you'll be happy you did, and you just might learn something in the process.
