Stonebridge High School senior, Wes “Big Mac” Mackenzie, is angry, is slacking off, and ditching school in “Skater Boy” (Soho Teen 2024) by debut
author Anthony Nerada. Wes is failing senior year, but he sure doesn’t want to stick around town for another year. He and his two skateboarding buddies are known as the Tripod, and even his two friends plan to get out of town after graduation.
Wes’ single mother is dating a nice man whose young daughter wants to see the Nutcracker ballet production at Christmastime. Wes is expected to go with them. What a nightmare—until Wes is mesmerized by the Nutcracker dancer himself. Tristan Monroe has a bio in the program and is openly gay. And beautiful. And Black.
Wes, who is white, is deep in the closet and the Tripod would be freaked if they knew he fancied a man, and of all things, a man as prissy as a ballet dancer. But Wes sees Tristan as the athlete he is. Tristan is also sensitive, smart, and responsible and couldn’t be more different than the punks that Wes and his buddies all are.
Tristan is not immediately drawn to Wes. Instead, he ridicules him with his best friend, a ballerina in the Nutcracker production. But the two young men begin to spend time together and appreciate each other’s sensitivity. Wes has been taking photos secretly and he takes some great ones of Tristan dancing, when they meet up at a deserted nighttime stage.
Influenced by Tristan, Wes finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having to give up old friends, the Tripod, for new ones, specifically the nerdy members of the photo club. This comes with some violence. Nerada uses great physical images, as when he describes Wes’s two old buddies bullying the photographers. “Their brown eyes scan the hall like they’re hunting for their next victim.”
When the fight breaks out, former-bully Wes says, “Any confidence I felt evaporates, leaving my body with the release of my breath. I want to crumble to the ground…” or “I bite back a scream.” He describes Brad, his Tripod opponent, who “huffs through gritted teeth” and “the muscles in his neck convulsing.” The details might not sound spectacular but in the fabric of the story, you feel the anger, the emotion. You’re in the fight with them.
Wes is discovering who he actually is, which is not the person that people expect him to be. He never wanted to be a bad boy, in the first place. He was put in that role by bad luck and following the easiest route. Not only does this story show an authentic evolution of character, a beautiful coming-of-age, but it shows that there are lots of ways to be gay. This is so worth reading.
Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning books: Lift As You Climb; Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue all signed and for sale at Jane Addams bookstore. Her forthcoming books are about women’s suffrage, Martha Graham, Ella Fitzgerald, as well as poems about waterfowl. talesforallages.com
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