Boys of Alabama

Having grown up queer in Alabama, I desperately wanted to like this book; after all, it was written by a nonbinary person who is from Alabama. Yet, there was no way for me to like it. A pastiche of staccato scenes without a strong connective narrative, this book vomits similes and other descriptive text without providing any insight or understanding of the state and the population therein. The author attempts a scathing and well-earned attack on Alabamas toxic culture of guns, god, and football, yet fails. Relying on unbelievable caricatures instead of writing relatable characters, the author misused words (bellowing for billowing was a particular favorite), avoided conventions of dialog punctuation, deployed timelines that didnt line up, mentioned tulips (in September?) and Forsythia (late summer?), and dabbled in the supernatural without providing a proper conclusion to the story. A big problem with this book is that at close of the story, I felt I had been cheated out of the cost of its purchase. The gushing reviews I read online and the reputation of the publishing imprint led me believe I was buying something that author and publisher failed to deliver. A horrible bait-and-switch deal.

Some reading experiences feel like a revelation, and that’s exactly what reading *Boys of Alabama* was. I had high hopes for it, but honestly I didn’t know exactly what to expect. What I got was a story I felt in my gut, that dug under my skin, rather than just “having read.” If I had to compare it to something, I’d compare it to Jesmyn Ward’s *Salvage the Bones*, both in its deft understanding of adolescent hunger and its expert, gritty representation of the American South that is both a critique and a letter of promise. I remember reading *Bones* for the first time and thinking, damn I’ve not seen something quite like this before.

The prose has an energy to it that also reminds me of Ward’s work, and Hudson is able to mix the literary and the experimental with a story that would appeal to teenagers as well as adults. I also really enjoyed the supernatural element; one of the teenage characters must reckon with the gift/curse of being able to bring animals (and maybe humans) back from the dead. Apart from this one element (which is still enough to intrigue scifi or fantasy fans, I think), the book explores very real concernsthe chains of masculinity that weigh boys down, the promises both mystical and false of evangelical religion, and the pain of burrowing out of the cocoon of adolescence.

Several scenes floored meparticularly one between the protagonist who has a moment of doubt about his sexuality and a female frienda scene like nothing I’ve seen before. I appreciate the originality at the heart of this novel, and the way it lets the reader find magic in all the many crannies of its story.

I haven’t felt this bereft at having to let go of a character in a long time. Both Pan and Max are wonderful queer characters, but oh Max, he seemed so pure and real! It reminded me of that first time I read *The Perks of Being a Wallflower*, and I was like, damn, I feel so much for Charlie and his pain. I usually don’t like sequels to books, but I make an exception for this one! I did not want to let this story endand yet, the finale was extraordinary in its beauty and its ambiguity.

This book is one of the best I’ve read this year! This writer is exquisitely talented. I thoroughly enjoyed her style and her prose is gorgeous. She totally brought the great State of Alabama to life. The sights, the sounds, the heat, the humidity, the food, the football, church, and the people, oh the people! This is largely the story of Max. A German teenager who relocates to the small town of Delilah with his parents , while his executive father is committed to a 3 year term at one of the German factories that set up shop in the Heart of Dixie.
Max is polite, formal and his new life in the U.S. is one wonder after another for him. He falls in with the crowd of boys at the Christian school he attends and is introduced to football, church and hunting.
He also forges a freindship with Pan, an openly gay classmate, who wears make-up and dresses.
Max is hiding quite a lot from his pals on the football team and from mostly everyone else about his own sexuality. He is living with remnants of a painful loss back in Germany and is in real conflict with himself.
I didn’t see this book as a LGBT offering. It was quite simply just a wonderful book.
The story keeps you turning those pages. I enjoyed the cultural differences highlighted between Max’s German family and those they encounter in Delilah. The portrait of small town Alabama was so very accurate.
I didn’t agree with some of the generalized feelings expressed toward the end of the novel concerning Southerners, but overall this book was excellent.
A touch of the supernatural included in the story was also inticing.

I don’t know What I’m missing here, but this was so dark, depressing and disjointed, I just wanted it to be over with. What a sad, impossible to relate to, bunch of characters. Ugh!

The writer really didnt make her characters come to life. I never got attached to any of them. I kept reading thinking it would get better, but it just became more confusing. The ending was absolutely the worse. It was a very disappointing read.

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