This was a free book from the author on LibraryThing. I finished the book, but the story didn't grab me until page 150; even then, there were times where I was missing something: I just didn't get it. The writing was fine, I guess it was the story that didn't excite me. I gave it my best shot, at least I finished it. ( )

Half-life by Aaron Krach is the second book that I've received through LibraryThing's Member Giveaways program, a spin-off of the Early Reviewers program. It's an interesting coincidence that both of the books I won were about gay men and that neither of them were really coming-out stories. But the two have few similarities beyond that--King of Cats follows an older, well-established English guitarist and those surrounding him while Half-life follows Adam, a southern Californian teenager just starting out, and his friends and family. One thing I hadn't realized when I submitted my request for Half-life was that it was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in 2004 for best debut novel. So, when I found that out, and when I found out that I had won the drawing for the book, I was very excited to read it.

Adam Westman is a senior at Angelito High School in Los Angeles with nothing much but finals and graduation to look forward to. He does still need to find a job for the summer to earn a bit of extra cash before heading to Standford to study English literature. But the sudden death of his father Greg changes everything and nothing. He still has his close friends Dart and Fran to hang out at the "Sev" with, and he never really felt that his father was there for him or his sister Sandra anyways. Now his self-absorbed mother Vivian has to start paying more attention and his stepfather Marc is doing his best to be there for them all. But along with death comes a chance at love--cop Jeff Manfield was one of the officers present at the scene of Greg's death. Although twenty years older than Adam, the two men have a romantic attraction for one another even considering the circumstances of their meeting.

Half-life is somewhat a slow, quiet book, which isn't to say that there aren't personal crises or conflicts because there certainly are--Krach simply isn't in your face about it. The story doesn't have a intense plot, it is about everyday people going about their everyday lives; feelings are going to get hurt and misunderstanding are bound to occur. So while the book isn't very flashy or over-dramatic, it still has quite a bit of feeling to it. The entire story takes place in 1999 between June 6 and June 21--two weeks that are magnified and closely examined day by day. I particularly enjoyed this technique since it showed just how important the little, and big, things in life really are.

Half-life provides a glimpse into the lives of its many primary and secondary characters. I was expecting the story to be mostly about Adam, but while he serves as a focal point the book is really about everyone, their relationships with one another, and the occasional missed connection. It is also a book about transitions and how people deal with them--or don't. Adam and his classmates are graduating, getting read to face "real life." His family circumstances change as they all adjust to the loss of his father. And falling in love will make other demands. Krach's storytelling is a prominent feature of the book; I was always very aware of the narrator and the fact that I was being told a story. The style is flippant and sassy with asides directed towards the reader every now and then. While Krach's style might be distracting for some, I found myself quite taken with it and enjoyed the book immensely.

Experiments in Reading ( )

I liked this book. At first I was concerned about the age difference and the thought of a high school age boy attracting an older police officer, but found the characters to be believable.

The only drawback was that I wanted the story to continue. I felt as if I was left hanging.

It took me some time to get into the flow of the book, and maybe for the book to really hit it's stride. Once there, about 1/3 of the way in, the book unfolds at a calm and deep pace that makes you think about the pace in LA, the pace of the deep waves coming in for the surfers, and the pace of the character's lives. The language and the timing, juxtaposed with the significant events occurring in Adam's life in the short time of the book were a large part of the story for me.

There are a lot of things to like about this novel, and reading about the first days after high school graduation brings back many memories, but I wanted to share how much I enjoyed reading it when I spent time thinking about how the language was paced. ( )

This was one of the first ever book I read. I was excited to read about coming out stories, and it would usually revolve around teenagers. I felt this book was written in two angles.

One was Adam dealing with his family. Heavy stuff.

The second one was Adam and Jeff, which was 'teen beat' stuff, which I thought was cute, except that I was already drained by the first stuff.

And maybe I was being silly, but as I continued to read the book, I kept wondering why not Adam and his best friend? Why did Adam have to wait around until he met a guy like Jeff?

But you know what.. for a book like this, which I have read years ago, and yet the story still lingers in my head, it has to be something special. Some books - I can't even remember the storylines. ( )