Book #1: Saints of Augustine

Saints of Augustine by P.E. Ryan (2007, paperback 2008)

I had to read an excerpt of this book, chapters 13 to 15, when I took a children's lit class in the spring of 2009 during the young adult unit. I found the chapters interesting and very funny, and so I set out to get the book. I finally had to order it through Amazon because none of the local bookstores had it in stock and it arrived yesterday.

Be warned, I'm giving out spoilers, but this book is so good.

The book is about Charlie Perrin and Sam Findley, sixteen-year-olds living in St. Augustine, Florida. They were best friends until Sam cut Charlie out of his life a year earlier with no explanation. Now, Sam is hiding his sexual orientation from his family and friends and Charlie is coping with his mother's death and father's alcoholism by smoking pot. It takes place in the summer before their senior year, three weeks before school starts up again, and even though they haven't spoken ot each other for a year, Charlie and Sam are thrown together when they try and run from their problems.

Sam and Charlie seem like normal teens: they have friends, they have jobs, they have complicated family lives, and they have secrets. Sam is gay, unwilling to come out after his father and mother have separated and his father is off in London with his new boyfriend (yes, Sam's dad is gay, too). Charlie has dreams of pro basketball but he's in deep crap because he owes 500 bucks to the local drug dealer after buying so much pot from him.

To me, Sam is troubled while Charlie seems dumb, but Charlie smokes pot to escape his life. His father has turned into an almost drunk after the death of Charlie's mother. He stays at home, ignores his job, and pisses off Charlie to no end.

Sam's mother is dating Teddy, a loud-mouthed racist and homophobe, and Sam clearly doesn't like him. He wants his life to go back the way it was, with his father in the same country so they can talk about things. When Sam meets Justin, he questions his sexuality even more, considering Justin is out and open.

Sam and Charlie come together after Charlie's dealer trashes his car and after Sam's mother sees Sam and Justin making out. They end up on the road, driving to the empty house Charlie works at fixing up, and pour out everything that's been bothering them, effectively becoming best friends again.

I thought this book was very funny and very emotional at the same time. It deals with divorce, death, and social pressure and expectations. Charlie is like the comic relief, while Sam is more of an emotional figure. Both seem, to me, like realistic teenagers, ones who do drugs and cope with loss and figure out who they are and who they're attracted to.

The kiss between Charlie and Sam was a little unexpected, considering it's Charlie that kisses Sam, but it stems from Sam's old possible crush on Charlie. Chapters 13 to 15 were the making up chapters, the explaining and accepting chapters, and I understand why only those three chapters were included in the YA excerpt. They were the coming together, the understanding and the realizing, the conclusion of all the crap that happened in the past year to Sam and Charlie.

Good thing there's a chapter 16. If it ended at 15, it would've sucked. And to be clear, Charlie is straight. He kisses Sam just to see what it would feel like.

There are bits I wish would've happened, like Charlie's dad and him making up some more, or Charlie's dealer getting busted by the cops, or Sam's dad coming back so they could talk, or he and Justin making up after Sam's running out on him, but that always happens. I hope Sam and Justin made up, and I hope Charlie didn't go back to his girlfriend Kate. She was far too smart for him.

One criticism I sort of have is that there were a lot of problems heaped on Sam and Charlie. I don't remember having that many problems in high school, but it's always different depending on where you are and so on. And I didn't really think Charlie's continuous and possibly fake attempts to get Kate to a motel so they could have sex were necessary. Of course, maybe he's just a horny sixteen-year-old.

I like how each chapter has a little subtitle or quote that hints at what the chapter is about. It's like a clue, and then when you find it you feel all special.

I have the fancy paperback that has a Q&A with P.E. Ryan and a playlist at the back. He's assigned a song to each chapter, so I'll have to listen to them and see how well it all fits together.

So, I really enjoyed this book. It's not all happy and sunshine and rainbows, but neither are high school and the teen years. I would enjoy a sequel, but it ends nicely and doesn't really need one.

Highly recommended for all readers, especially YA lit fans, people who enjoy life stories and novels about friendships, and gay and straight lit. I do think this book is aimed for teen guys, but as a girl in her early 20's, I enjoyed it every much, so lots of people can read it.

Lindsay E.