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What They Always Tell Us

by Martin Wilson (Goodreads Author)

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 1,531 ratings · 190 reviews

JAMES AND ALEX have barely anything in common anymore—least of all their experiences in high school, where James is a popular senior and Alex is suddenly an outcast. But at home, there is Henry, the precocious 10-year-old across the street, who eagerly befriends them both. And when Alex takes up running, there is James’s friend Nathen, who unites the brothers in moving and...more

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Published August 12th 2008 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

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Dec 07, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Nancy by: Thomas

Shelves: lgbt, kids-and-teens, made-me-cry, library-books, queereaders-group-read, favorites

What They Always Tell Us is a very simple, quiet story told from the perspective of two brothers who live in Alabama. James is a high school senior. Even though he’s smart, has lots of friends, and is on the tennis team, the only thing he wants is to go to college and leave Alabama. Alex, a junior, is James’ younger brother. While he’s not as smart, athletic, or as popular as James, he has other qualities that James lacks – Alex is sensitive, caring, generous and compassionate.

Alex and James we...more

57 likes · like · see review

May 06, 2011 Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: five-stars, glbt, own-physical, favorites

What They Always Tell Us is about two brothers, James and Alex, who are unlike each other in many ways - James is outgoing and popular, while Alex is compassionate and reserved. After Alex attempts to take his life at a party, James is left wondering what went wrong. Then, Alex meets James's friend Nathan, and the two form a friendship that could grown into something more.

This book is simple and stunning. As of May 2011, even after two years, it remains one of the best books I've ever read and m...more

16 likes · like · see review

Sep 09, 2010 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa by: http://michelenjeff-reviews.blogspot.com/

Shelves: gay-lit, coming-of-age, ya, favorites

“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you.”
“Yeah, that’s what they always tell us.”
“But it’s not really true, is it?”
“Not really. Lots of things they tell us aren’t true. A lot of what they tell us is garbage.”
“Then why do they tell us stuff like that?”
“I don’t know.”

How did we ever dare to allow such a trite cliché to persist? Words do hurt; they cut to the quick, and once delivered, the damage can’t be undone. Martin Wilson’s What They Always Tell Us is an impacting...more “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you.”
“Yeah, that’s what they always tell us.”
“But it’s not really true, is it?”
“Not really. Lots of things they tell us aren’t true. A lot of what they tell us is garbage.”
“Then why do they tell us stuff like that?”
“I don’t know.”

How did we ever dare to allow such a trite cliché to persist? Words do hurt; they cut to the quick, and once delivered, the damage can’t be undone. Martin Wilson’s What They Always Tell Us is an impacting emotional tale of alienation, loneliness, desolation, conformity, friendships, purpose, empathy and endurance. The story runs the emotional gamut, from heartbreaking to hopeful, and in the best way that I can find to compliment the author, I’ll simply say the book has inspired me to want to share it with my own teenager and as many of her friends as will read it.

The story follows the lives of two brothers, Alex and James Donaldson, through their junior and senior years of high school, respectively. The brothers are only a year apart in age, reside in rooms across the hall from one another, but exist separated by a chasm of awkwardness. “One day he’d felt as if he fit into the world and the next he felt badly out of place… Soon after he turned sixteen, something in Alex seemed to shift.” Alex loses his place in life, but he’s not altogether certain whether he’s changed and driven his friends away, or whether his friends have changed and driven Alex away. Whatever the order of events, Alex slips into a deep depression that will prove to alter the course of his life. After Alex survives what his family simply refers to as “the incident”, neither he nor James knows how to cross the divide between them to regain what they’d once had.

James is the achiever. He excels academically and athletically and is going through his own changes, enduring the trivialities of his senior year of high school. Parties, immature friends, and failed relationships all serve to drive James’s need to leave Tuscaloosa for a brighter college experience. James is also suffering under the burden of knowing that he should try to be a better brother to Alex, but sometimes the courage it takes to expose our concern for someone is overwhelmed by the hurt and anger we feel toward the person who nearly robbed us of everything we hold dear. Sometimes all it takes is finding a common ground to start building the bridge, and their common ground comes in the form of their ten year old neighbor, Henry Burns, a boy who doesn’t fit in.

Alex, James and their friends are contemporary teens coping with topical issues. Martin Wilson shows a great deal of compassion for his protagonists and their problems, which allows the reader to empathize and bond with them. The plot of What They Always Tell Us doesn’t motivate the protagonists; rather the protagonists motivate the plot, and it’s the perfect piece for the reader who demands fully realized, three dimensional characters. The high school setting influences everything from expected behaviors to the myriad social and emotional issues faced by teenagers and gives absolute authenticity to the material.

From Alex discovering his sexual identity, to James becoming the brother he wanted and needed to be, the themes are familiar and universal. Encompassing acceptance, friendship, self-awareness, compassion, giving and receiving acts of simple kindness, finding a purpose, and learning to endure life’s hardships, Martin Wilson writes with a clear style that doesn’t condescend to the intelligence of his teenage readers. The story is told honestly, fearlessly, and is one that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.
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Jul 25, 2011 Leslie Nicoll rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: potential-top-ten-2011

This book had been on my radar for quite a while—it was a Lambda Literary Award nominee in 2008 for Young Adult/Children’s Fiction—but I never got around to reading it. However, as I noted in my review of I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip, there were three essays at the end, one of which was written by Martin Wilson. That spurred me on to picking up What They Always Tell Us and I am glad I finally did.

As I suspect everyone who reads my reviews knows, young adult books are my guilty ple...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 16, 2008 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: EVERYONE!

Shelves: teen-reality, teen-queer

This is a great book dealing with depression, suicide attempts, and sexuality. However, it deals with so much more like compassion, relationships between brothers, social expectations, rumors, fear, and social posturing. I am not sure I can really describe exactly how well this books delves into a young persons psyche just trust me it does it well.

Told in alternating chapters between 2 brothers (1 year apart) dealing with the attempted suicide of the younger brother. This book is NOT heavy han...more

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Oct 16, 2008 Rory rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is probably the best book I have every read about growing up--at least the most similar to how I grew up. It is a story of two brothers who both have to deal with repercussions of one night and the trickle effect it has on their entire life from high school to the family to themselves.

I think what I loved most was that neither brother was a simple character but they each surprised me in how clearly well rounded they were. I think it is very hard to not to rely on high school stereotypes but...more

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Apr 02, 2009 Cornmaven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hs-adult

This is a story about a kid struggling to discover his sexual orientation along with his place in his universe. The book opens with the aftermath of an attempted suicide, and things unfold from there. The suicide is not a result of his realizing that he is gay - that happens through the story.

The chapters alternate between his and his brother's worldviews - his brother being a senior and also trying to make sense of the weirdness of high school and a general malaise about the future. It's told...more This is a story about a kid struggling to discover his sexual orientation along with his place in his universe. The book opens with the aftermath of an attempted suicide, and things unfold from there. The suicide is not a result of his realizing that he is gay - that happens through the story.

The chapters alternate between his and his brother's worldviews - his brother being a senior and also trying to make sense of the weirdness of high school and a general malaise about the future. It's told in 3rd person, present tense, which is unusual for YA books these days. I think the author decided on that route to give us a distance from the events and angst.

Wilson juxtaposes heterosexual encounters with homosexual encounters in some unique ways. The former is expected and but clearly are destructive emotionally, as these HS kids move from partner to partner in search of the love they do not get from sex. They are all adrift. Alex and Nathen, on the other hand, enter into a genuine loving relationship, albeit secret by necessity, and Alex figures out that it's not going to last because Nathen is going off to college. What he succeeds in doing, however, is mature enough to be honest with himself and his brother and his therapist - but not his parents yet. The sexual encounters are tastefully done, and not that graphic or detailed, which is appreciated - they didn't need to be to get the point across.

There's also a little, weird boy across the street who teaches everyone about tolerance and love. In fact, the whole tone of the book is tolerance and love, and I liked that. The theme of the danger of keeping secrets is pretty strong, too.

There's not a lot of melodrama in the book, which is a change of pace, but the themes will stick with the reader.

I knocked it down a star, however, because of a couple of things. Some details were 'off' regarding HS kids. These kids mostly come from wealthy families, yet they are not communicating by cell phone, which seemed very odd. Also, Wilson uses the term "buddy" as a term of endearment - the dad calls his boys that, Nathen calls Alex that, Alex and James call the boy across the street that, but a couple of times Wilson slips up and has someone use it to another guy that would never happen. He needed to use 'dude' 'man' and a guy's last name more often to make it real. I did like that almost all the kids had two parent, semi-normal families, which is kind of different in YA books these days. No mothers headed for a mental breakdown, how refreshing. Another slight flaw is the low level of homophobia amongst the students - there's some, but I hear about a stronger level at HS currently, and Wilson doesn't really go into much about that. He also doesn't juxtapose gay kids who aren't open about it, with those who are, which is another fact of HS life. I would have been interested to see how he would have done that.

All in all, a good read.

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Sep 16, 2012 Claire Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: aaaaangst, historical-fiction, lbgtq, ya

I'm maybe getting a little burned out on probably-heavily-autobiographical-MFA-theses-set-during-the-author's-undisclosed-teen-years that get turned into YA fiction because of the teen protagonists. There are a lot of them, especially queer ones, and I can't help but feel that these authors don't read YA... in part because they so often privilege their own voice over the characters' voices.

Anyway, there were things I liked about this book -- many of the boys' interactions felt authentic, and th...more

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May 16, 2012 natercopia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It started out slow and at times boring. Ok, it was kind of boring throughout. But what I gathered is that sometimes boring stuff makes you contemplate on the complicated emotions humans possess. There was a sense of restlessness right at the beginning of the story when an accident at a party cause a drift between brothers, Alex and James. You could already sense the confusion and frustration that was facing the older brother, James. I felt that the 'cold' treatment he was giving off to his brot...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Bee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abuse-hate-bullying, athletes-and-jocks, heavy-angst, kindle, m-m-lite, romance, stuck-in-the-closet, survival, young-adult

After a kind of slow start this book actually proved to be pretty good. It’s a young-adult book that kind of takes a different look on family, friendship and love…with two brothers in focus. ´

Alex and James are only one year apart in age, Alex 16 and a half and James about one year older, but they might as well be living in different universes. James is a varsity Tennis player, he’s always at a party or hanging with his friends…or whatever girl he’s currently dating. He’s cool and popular and pr...more After a kind of slow start this book actually proved to be pretty good. It’s a young-adult book that kind of takes a different look on family, friendship and love…with two brothers in focus. ´

Alex and James are only one year apart in age, Alex 16 and a half and James about one year older, but they might as well be living in different universes. James is a varsity Tennis player, he’s always at a party or hanging with his friends…or whatever girl he’s currently dating. He’s cool and popular and pretty happy about life, most of the time. Alex is lonely, his friends and basically the whole school has shunned him after an “incident” where he drank some cleaning chemical at a party about a month ago. He’s unhappy and friendless so he’s spending all his weekends at home, where his mother has made it a habit to hide all the cleaning products. He’s got weekly therapy sessions but he feels like he has no one to talk to. One weekend when the boys’ parents are away two things happen, Alex befriends the 10-year-old boy next door, Henry, and James dumps his girlfriend; two events that start the process of change. When Alex then starts running with James’ friend Nathen everything changes and the two brothers will soon begin to grow closer again…

At times this was a really great book. The boys alternate chapters and I especially liked Alex’s ones (go figure). The beginning was as I mentioned a bit slow, and sometimes I felt the urge to (but didn’t) skip certain sections, mostly the parts concerning Henry and his mysterious mom. It’s high school so there’s bullying and a lot of angst, but there’s also first love (*siiiiigh*) and friendship and some joy. It was sad to read about the family in the beginning when the two brothers were so far apart, but as they grew closer you could feel the love there…which was awesome. (view spoiler)

A good book, but it left me wanting more!
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May 15, 2011 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: teen-reads, gay-reads, books-read-in-2011

This book seemed to me to be an Ordinary People for a more self-aware age. Only in this case the brother is not lost but only almost lost. It seems that every author has a coming out story that they want to tell and this does indeed include one as well, but its more than than just that. Here the whole struggling with one's sexuality issue is actually more subdued and not the be-all and end-all that its presented as in so many other stories.

Being told from the viewpoint of both the younger and t...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 06, 2010 William Cooper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What They Always Tell us is told from two point of views. Alex, the younger brother, who is a social outcast after he makes a mistake at a party and James, the older brother, who is mister popularity. The boys used to be close when they were younger, but ever since Alex's mistake, they've grown apart. The novel follows the two boys relationship with each other and Alex's friendship with Nathen - his brothers friend - and Henry, the strange boy across the street.

I absolutely loved this novel! It...more

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 27, 2010 Patricia Pack rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 23, 2010 Talia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-fiction, book-club

This is a story about two brothers, James and Alex. James is a high school senior whose main concern is getting into Duke. He’s grown weary of all of the parties and juvenile behavior of his friends and just wants to move away from Alabama. Alex is James’s younger brother. He has turned into a social pariah at school due to an incident at a party where he drank Pine-Sol. The only person who talks to him is James’s friend, Nathen, who encourages Alex to try out for the cross country team, and tur...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Meredith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: male-protagonist, realistic, teen, glbt

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

1 like · like · see review

Jun 07, 2009 Harper rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story is about two brothers and a year that changes their lives and the way they see the world. James is a popular high school boy who suddenly realizes he has outgrown everyone around him. The parties and hangouts he used to enjoy just don't seem that important anymore. In addition to his friends, he finds that he just cannot understand his brother anymore and they used to be so close.

Alex realizes that his friends just don't understand him anymore. After he swallowed Pine-Sol at a party...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Jordan Leonard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What They Always Tell Us
Martin Wilson
Delacorte Press, c2008, 291 pages, $15.99
Social Issues in homosexuality for YAL
ISBN 978-0-385-73507-0

In What They Always Tell Us, Martin Wilson illustrates the unique relationship that exists between two brothers. James and Alex are going through high school intent on simply making it through. With Alex’s recent social flop of drinking cleaning solution at a high school party resulting in complete rejection from Alex’s friends, James must try and finish his...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Ami rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mm-young-or-new-adult

I bought this book several years ago -- before I knew about MM romance and just got acquainted with LGBT fiction. I haven't had the chance to read it because well, no romance made it less appealing. Until now, when I got bored with what published MM titles could offer ...

This story is WONDERFUL. It follows the life of two brothers:

Alex, the younger one, who feels alienated and lonely and different. His friends look at him as loser, after he drank a bottle of Pine-Sol at a party. And James, the...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Helene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, ya-yaparanormal

This book is truly beautiful, a must read for teenagers especially but for everyone really. The author takes up some really heavy subjects and handle them extremely well. There are so many things going on in this book but it never felt artificial. It's just everyday life told by the brothers Alex and James.
Alex struggles to come back from depression and suicide attempt while being shunned by almost everybody.
James struggles with his own feelings of shock, anger, helplessness and fear because of...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Hilary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-for-fun

Well, this is a I can't decide between 3 and 4 so I'll round up.

Here's why: it's very, very character driven. Which is great. Stories aren't all about plot, and this one was, honestly pretty-boring plot wise. There wasn't anything really moving the narrative progression forward, though you are definitely connected to the characters. That said, for realistic fiction, especially YA realistic fiction, sometimes the plots are...completely crap. Sometimes, life is just a series of stupid things, lik...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Reyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, read-late-into-the-night, gay, heavy-shit

Normally when I read books I cycle through about five or so until I find one that really consumes me. I will then focus on that book until I have exhausted its pages and digested the plot. With this novel, it took me a while to finally admit to myself that I was engrossed in the story. Such is the subtlety of this brilliant novel that you are pulled in immediately and only later does it hit you that you have been invested all along.

Alex is a quiet boy who shatters his family's complacent securit...more

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Jun 27, 2011 TheBookSmugglers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: HERE

What They Always Tell Us is a wonderful, beautiful story about two brothers who were once very close, then drifted apart and slowly find their way to each other. The story is told in alternating chapters from each brother’s perspective and it follows both throughout this one year in their lives.

Alex is the youngest one, the quiet, solitary brother who’s been dealing with the repercussions of drinking Pine Sol one day at a party and ending up in hosp...more Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers: HERE

What They Always Tell Us is a wonderful, beautiful story about two brothers who were once very close, then drifted apart and slowly find their way to each other. The story is told in alternating chapters from each brother’s perspective and it follows both throughout this one year in their lives.

Alex is the youngest one, the quiet, solitary brother who’s been dealing with the repercussions of drinking Pine Sol one day at a party and ending up in hospital. Ever since then, his friends have disappeared, his parents treat him with extreme caution and his brother simply doesn’t seem to care. All Alex wants is to feel right again and things start to look up when he strikes two unlikely friendships: first with his 10 year old neighbour Henry and then with one of his brother’s best friends, Nathen. Henry is the one who reminds him what is like to have a brother but Nathen is the one who helps him grow up and the one who eventually becomes more than just a friend. Ah, l’amour.

The older brother, James, is a senior about to graduate and go to college. He is a top student, a great athlete, a very popular kid who is always surrounded by friends and girlfriends. He is also SICK of it all, bored with all the parties. He can’t understand why his brother did what he did and now all that he wants is to get the hell out of Alabama.

What They Always Tell Us is a quiet story. It progresses very slowly and the nature of its storytelling is more like a gentle breeze rather than a violent storm but no less effective for that. It is hard to express how well the author managed to take such charged topics like suicide and coming out and explore them in such a gentle manner. This gentleness (there is no better word for it) is in the way that Alex’s suicide attempt is revealed to the reader, the reasons behind it and how Alex feels about it. He knows it was a mistake and he’s been trying to atone for it ever since. But more than that, he’s been trying to understand it, to understand his feelings and yes, coming out as queer is part of it but it is not all of it and I hugely appreciated how the author treated this as part of who he was but not all that he was. His identity is about more than that: there is his surprise at being a good athlete, his passion for running, his friendships, his family and his relationship with his brother and yes, also his falling in love with Nathen. Although the potential complications of the latter are not glossed over – after all, this is Alabama – there is a lovely easy acceptance about their feelings for each other and it is ever so romantic (and also, hot).

Meanwhile, we have James. Who at first comes across as a tremendous sexist jerk and I wanted to punch him in the face with my Fists of Fury. He treats girls in the most horrible manner, he is whinny in his boredom with his life, he is angry with people he shouldn’t be angry with and it feels as though he is frozen in limbo. It was hard to warm up to James to start with but soon enough it becomes clear how affected he was by his brother’s suicide attempt and perhaps, just perhaps all of those feelings are a result of a pent-up anger at himself. His character arc is perhaps more obvious and less gentle than Alex’s and when the moment comes when James FINALLY gets angry with those who deserve his anger (and that includes himself) and realises how important his brother is, it is the sort of victorious, triumphant moment that made me want to fist pump and celebrate. He also becomes a better person in the end (although I have to say, I hoped his sexism would have been addressed more directly).

What They Always Tell Us is a story about brothers and about coming out. But I think that above all, this is a delicate exploration about what it means to be happy and how fleeting happiness can be. It is an effusive feeling? It is subtle? How much does happiness depend on external factors or internal ones? How much do other people affect your ability to be happy – or add to it? All characters to one extent or another are trying to understand what make them happy and trying catch it whenever them can, knowing that there are also shitty things that happen in life. There are no easy answers, there are no fixed outcomes but in the end Alex and James found each other again and as brothers and friends, they can face anything together.

I had such a taste of that elusive happiness when I read this book and I know it is not of the fleeting kind. This is the sort of book with the sort of characters that simply …stay.

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Jan 23, 2010 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, queer, fiction

This books touches upon a variety of tough/important topics like attempted suicide, homosexuality, friends, and family. If that wasn't too vague!

The characters all felt extremely real without boringly or obnoxiously so. The first few chapters read very emo/apathetic and I was worried it would turn out to be a "woe is me" type story that did alot of whining. However, after the initial weekend, a new vivaciousness appears in the characters and things start to get better.

I think the only thing that...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had heard a lot of good things about this book and was very excited to read it. I ended up reading it in its entirety on a Saturday and just couldn’t put it down. At first, I was skeptical of the perspective alternating between brothers but, once I was well into the book, I found that it didn’t take away from my reading experience at all. I, maybe predictably, did enjoy Alex’s parts of the story more, however.

The actual romance aspect of the book was very well done. In fact, I wish there was m...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Stevecrandell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: homosexuality, grades-9-and-up, teen-boys

It’s pretty obvious where this book is headed, long before it gets there. There’s more than 100 pages of thinly disguised hints before Wilson reveals whether he’s writing a heartfelt message book or an unconventional teen romance.

Of course it’s a good bit of both, and to his credit, Wilson maintains a believable balance. Alex is near-perfect as a confused and depressed 16-year-old who finds what it means to be sincerely happy. His brother, James, is equally convincing as the cool senior who isn...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the interest of full-disclosure, let me say at the outset that I'm a gay teenager (18) and can't think of a strong enough word or words to describe how much I LOVED this book.

I actually finished reading it about a week ago and wanted to let it settle in before I reviewed it. Over the past week, I have been
thinking about this book over and over.

I've been reading a lot of fast-paced novels that are more adventure-oriented, so this was a totally refreshing change of pace. This is a very charac...more In the interest of full-disclosure, let me say at the outset that I'm a gay teenager (18) and can't think of a strong enough word or words to describe how much I LOVED this book.

I actually finished reading it about a week ago and wanted to let it settle in before I reviewed it. Over the past week, I have been
thinking about this book over and over.

I've been reading a lot of fast-paced novels that are more adventure-oriented, so this was a totally refreshing change of pace. This is a very character-based story and, because of that, moves at a slower, and I might add, more graceful pace than a lot of books out there right now.

Without giving away the storyline, the story goes back and forth between two brothers over the course of a year and the change that comes over them during that time.

Being a gay teen, I found myself wanting more of Alex's chapters (he's the brother who is comning to terms with being gay) and less of James' which I know is very selfish. I think this is because I identified with him more. The romance in his part (with Nathan, another student in his school) was written in a way that you could use your total imagination to fill in what the author only hinted at. It was so very sweet watching Alex fall in love with this hot guy in school, and watching how they gradually and subtly fell in love.

The author spends a lot of time making his characters fully three-dimensional and he did a great job of conveying a lot of emotions subtly. Like I said before, it's a slow-paced quiet book and it's one that I found myself dying to get back to in between intervals of reading.

One character that's a constant between the two stories is a young boy named Henry and there's a whole sub-plot mystery going on with him which was fun to read. He was a great inclusion into the book because he befriended both of the brothers and helped them change over the year. I don't know, I just really liked his character- very smart and perceptive.

Overall, a wonderful, coming-of-age story that makes me eager to read more of Wilson's writing.
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May 06, 2013 Izzat Zainal marked it as to-read · review of another edition

WHEN THINGS KICK OFF WITH THE TYPICAL AMERICAN TEENAGE PROBLEMS ("suicide" "drugs" "popularity" "mean-bullies" "homophobia") similarly to Geography Club or The Perks of Being A Wallflower or Will Grayson Will Grayson or even Beautiful Creatures or even movies like Mean Girls or Easy A my reactions would be like

I'm not belittling American or saying I'm not empathetic but it's just annoying when authors tend to press on more depression in my brain about these problematic things. Do you get what I'...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: age-high-school

Book club book. A quiet book about two brothers in high school in a small town in Alabama. James is a jock with good grades who feels increasingly distanced from his younger brother Alex after Alex drinks Pine-Sol at a party and becomes a social outcast. When James's friend Nathen befriends Alex and then becomes more than a friend, tensions are heightened.

Although this book mirrored the quiet pace of real life, I found myself eager to find out what happened.

Favorite quotes:

"It's not that Alex...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Jennifer Lavoie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: family, friends, gay, lgbt, multicultural, older-teens, public-library

I enjoyed the alternate viewpoints of James and Alex throughout this novel. In the beginning, James is a jerk to his brother and ignores him, but he changes throughout the novel and comes to accept him and even regret not being there for him during a difficult time in his life. Alex, meanwhile, comes to accept his new life without former friends, finds a new friend and a new purpose, and almost starts over.

Alex being gay is not a huge issue in the novel. In fact it's not even brought up until h...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Libraryangel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The human heart is capable of so many beautiful things when you allow it. For example...acceptance and love. This was a book I hadn't heard much about and I think that is a true shame. It surprised me. It is a lovely book that centers on the relationship between two brothers and the silence that could destroy their fragile relationship if they allow it. It deals remarkably well with the realization that you do not know the person living down the hall from you like you once did. It embraces what...more

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My Story Book Club: Reading for 5/23-5/30	1	10	May 23, 2012 11:13am
My Story Book Club: Reading for May 15-22	1	5	May 16, 2012 09:05pm
My Story Book Club: Chapters 1,2, and 3 Discussion Questions	1	6	May 07, 2012 07:50pm
My Story Book Club: Reading for May 8-15	1	4	May 07, 2012 07:47pm

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7946022-what-they-always-tell-us?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1270183096l/7946022.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7946022-what-they-always-tell-us?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson[/url]

What They Always Tell Us

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