Friday, September 13, 2024

Things We Couldn’t Say by Jay Coles

Gio is 17 and living with his preacher father and loving stepmother when his birth mother - who deserted the family eight years ago  - arrives back in  town and wants to see him and his younger brother Theo who suffers with PTSD.  


Gio is  getting through school and playing on the  basketball team, supported by his friends Olly and Ayesha, when his mother arrives on the scene.   And complicating  matters is a new student at Gio’s school who just arrived from Kansas,  is a painter,  also on the basketball team,  and also bi,  and who now may be Gio’s new crush.  


Brimming with emotional intelligence, author Coles invites the reader to empathize with Gio’s storm of difficult feelings as his birth mother makes a bid for his attention while romance with his new friend is in the air.  


Confident teen readers looking for realistic fiction and a little romance may enjoy this title from the author of Tyler Johnson Was Here.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

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