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A story of two boys from very different upbringings, who meet at
A story of two boys from very different upbringings, who meet at Berkley boarding schhol in Massachusetts for their senior year. One worldly, confident, seemingly sure of himself; the other shy, introverted, wanting to belong.
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As the boys become friends and interact in each others lives they learn their own truths of who and what they are and will grow to become.
I enjoyed the story and found it an engaging read. My big problem was including this as a 'gay interest' novel. While the boys stories startb out equally Ethan's story quickly overtakes Todd's soon becoming the sole point of view in the book. Now I did enjoy Ethan's story, but I felt Todd got the short end of the bargain. Ethan's tale goes into quite some detail about what is happening and what Ethan feels about his new life exoperiences. Todd kisses Ethan early on in the tale and realizes his feelins are unrequited. What happens next? Todd becomes a person seen through Ethan's story. What does he do to help his friend. How does he see the situation. But precious little as his story is mired in self doubt, fear of being found out, and finally some hastily concieved action at the end where he meets a person who might be of some interest, earlier revealed to be the only openly gay student character, who gets physically assaulted several times during the story and basically remains alone throughout.
When does Todd explore his desires? Once in a quick tryst with the gay friend of Hannah (Ethan's love interest) and once later on at the antique shop of one of his Mom's gay friends partners in a non sexual encounter). That's it.
Ethan goes through some major life experiences and starts to realize what his adult life might become. Todd? Much less time is spent developing that story. I felt cheated as the story marched along and Todd became an afterthought. I don't know why that happened. Could the author not have developed Todd's storyline ang bring his character into some form of equitabile plot line(s). Guess not.
All that being said, I really enjoyed the book. I deducted a star in rating due to the inequity of the storylines. Not a book I'd reccommend to YA gay or questioning readers. -
blah
This novel was very predictable. Basically a typical dramatic story of life behind the stone facade of a private school. You have the rebellious, indifferent boy who is secretly gay and the teacher who has affairs with her students. Ok, so maybe this didn't happen at your high school (didn't happen at mine, either, that I know of, anyway...), but with every turn of the page I could tell you what would happen even before I read it. The writing style itself was very dry and unemotional, and th...more This novel was very predictable. Basically a typical dramatic story of life behind the stone facade of a private school. You have the rebellious, indifferent boy who is secretly gay and the teacher who has affairs with her students. Ok, so maybe this didn't happen at your high school (didn't happen at mine, either, that I know of, anyway...), but with every turn of the page I could tell you what would happen even before I read it. The writing style itself was very dry and unemotional, and the author did a lot of "telling" instead of "showing". I felt very separated and distant from the characters and toward the end I was just reading to get to the final page. One last thing...I felt like the time sequences were off. Especially toward the end, when there were four weeks left of school...but the author kept saying "a few weeks later," "a few weeks later," "a few weeks later,"...to me it felt like we went through four months in that last four weeks of school. This was throughout the whole book, and kind of threw me off a bit.
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Slices
Dolby provides a slice of high school life involving a teacher more troubled than her adolescent students.
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Anonymous
Posted October 5, 2008
Compelling and Fast-Paced
I began reading The Sixth Form with very little preconceptions. However, I was pleasantly surprised at it's readability and yet how much plot detail and character development was allowed. The book does move fast and the friendship between Todd and Ethan is sometimes taken for granted so as to confuse the reader as to how close they really are by the end of the book. However, Ethan's treatment of Todd and the way Todd carries on most of the friendship within his head does illustrate the abstractness of their relationship. Ethan's relation to Hannah is another story. It is lavishly and enticingly built up so that when the reader is, as the reader often is, dragged back into reality 'most often whenever Ethan talks to a Berkeley graduate about Hannah's past' Hannah's story seems almost frighteningly surreal. Altogether this novel is highly dramatic and entertaining, if the tiniest bit shallow. It is great fodder for one's own introspection.
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