Review: One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date: May 27, 2014

Format: eBook

Source: Netgalley

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, GLBT

 Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek’s parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshman year of high school. He never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan.

Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. He can’t believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend—he’s barely ever had a girlfriend—but maybe it’s time to think again. (Goodreads)

I have no idea how to approach a review of this book so I'm just going to type and I hope it all makes sense. Okay so, first I have to say that I love this freaking book. I got an eARC from Netgalley and I can't thank them enough. I love Alek, he was opinionated, kind of snarky, and a little self conscious but that kid wouldn't stand for any injustice. I loved when he got super angry at Ethan for making (what Alek though) was a homophobic slur. It was like, despite the fact that Alek considered Ethan cooler and more experienced than him, he didn't care about calling him out on his crap. It was fantastic. I hate reading about people who let others walk all over them because they're a little intimidated. In addition to that Alek was funny, found myself randomly laughing at things he said. (I would kill to listen to this on audio book, I feel like it would be hilarious).

Ethan... what to say about Ethan. I liked how open he was. He could have dragged out the story of his past relationship and he could have gotten really angsty about it, but he didn't. He told Alek his story, and laid it all out there. I also like how forgiving he was. Alek jumped to a lot of conclusions, the first time they were in NY, the cafeteria, but Ethan wasn't a jerk about it.

Becky YES! you are fantastic in every way possible. She doesn't take any crap from anyone. If I had to pick a book best friend it would be her. When Alek tried to blow her off a second time, she would have been well within her rights to be furious with him. But nope, not Becky, she barges in, sets up her movie, and tells Ethan that he better get use to her because she isn't going anywhere.

Snaps to the relationship between Alek and Nik, it was nice to see them grow closer, although I'm not exactly sure why. One day Nik just decided to be a nicer older brother. I liked watching (reading about??) them in the end. I liked when Nik said that he wasn't always trying to be mean, he just wanted to be a good older brother. It was nice.

Lastly, I would like to bow and applaud Michael Barakiva for being a darn good writer. "The merciless blaring of his alarm clock was a psychic assault on Alek's brain. He cheated his eyes open a sliver. The red numbers glared 7:17. Alek did the math in his head, desperate for a computation that allowed him one more snooze without being late. But when the numbers refused to cooperate, he had to hurl himself out of bed and onto the floor, letting the impact smash him into consciousness." You can't tell me that's not a great passage, and that's only chapter 4. The opening to the book was fantastic too. I couldn't stop laughing. So thanks. My world's just a little brighter because of you!!!

4.5 Stars

This just in, the author of this book sent me a message on Goodreads. I just about fell over!!!! 

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