Beyond the Wind

by Rob N. Hood

Sex, religion, life, and death as seen through the eyes of a gay teenage boy. After an embarrassing incident at a Nebraska high school, fourteen-year-old Christopher Talbot’s secret gay lifestyle is nearly exposed. On top of that, his depressed lover, Kyle, has run away to the big city of Omaha to work the streets. Christopher will do anything to get him back, but during the rescue, he and his friends stumble onto a conspiracy against a senator supporting AIDS awareness in schools. After witnessing a murder, every treacherous step he takes endangers him, and yet he cannot stop the path from crumbling under his feet. Can he find solid ground, or is it too late? From the "Was I wrong?" Mom bluntly asked me. "I mean, what am I to think when I hear these things and then walk in here this morning to find. . ." Her words trailed off. She then acted as if I might throw her a lifeline, help sort this thing out, explain why I was sharing my bed with Kyle. I then thought of all those letters I’d read on the Internet from other kids who had "come out," thinking how brave some of those kids had been as they told people they loved (and feared to lose) that they were gay. I never once contemplated following their example. I didn’t think I’d ever have to. But now, here my mom was asking me the dreaded question. I didn’t know how those other kids worked up the nerve or what motivated them. I only knew I was terrified of what her reaction was going to be. Beyond the Wind is a unique work of "edutainment," offering a well-developed plot involving AIDS, suicide, sexual orientation, and politics as well as a fast-paced story that will keep you hooked to the last page. Not only is this a vital story for and about homosexual teens, it is an essential tool for parents, family, friends, educators, and other youth-affiliated professionals to learn more about the special people in their lives.

245 pages, Paperback

First published December 23, 2003

Reviews

[PearlDoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Book is a very Brave one. It tackles Topics such as Religion, Identity , Loss, and AIDs in a way that Younger Readers can Access. The Story is very Relevant, especially with how it portrays the Pressures and confusion many Queer Teenagers still face.

Some moments are powerful and heartfelt, offering real emotional honesty.

At the Same Time, the writing can feel a bit Clumsy, with how certain Scenes coming Across as Overly Direct or Uneven. Overall, it's a Thoughtful Read that earns this Rating. I could've given it a Higher Score, but it does have Flaws that marked it officially at 3 stars.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

SlashReaders: First off this is really a coming of age story. For people who get tired of those you can go ahead and skip this one. As far as they go it's alright but not way out there.

While I commend the author for writing this book for the reasons it was written, I think the reasons for writing got in the way of the actual story a little bit at times. This book is geared towards gay youth, to spread awareness of aid's, suicide and other issues. It is not an easy book to read, because it deals with some pretty heavy issues. However, it deals with them in the form of a murder mystery and kids being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In terms of that, the mystery was a little confusing with a lot thrown in at the end. I'm not sure I really bought the fact that the kids would've just been left alone in the end as a couple of them were material witnesses, etc.

That being said I think the straight male character Bryce in this novel was the best. I also really liked Jen, the token lesbian in here. They were both well done and a lot of fun. The main character wasn't as strong in my opinion. I must admit that Kyle (the main character's boyfriend) got on my nerves some. Then again, I like reading a book every once and a while where the main character gets smart and begins to move past the manipulative significant other. At least that's the way I read the end of the book, after all not all of the bastards can end up being reformed for better.

My biggest issue with the book was these fourteen'ish aged kids spitting up all of these facts about aids and so forth and so on. I accepted it from Jen because that was the way her character was written. However, Chris's first major research session comes later on the book and yet before that point he is also burping up facts. While that is in part the point of writing the book to spread awareness, I think it detracted a little from the actual narrative.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid that I didn't really care too much for this. It was an over-earnest attempt at being a gay story that educates as well as entertains but it didn't really engage me. I think that there should have been a less intense plot and more time spent on character and relationship development.

There are some good spots, but overall, it's not great. I pulled this out of my read pile when I realized that I couldn't recall having read it. I tried a re-read and the opening scenes were very familiar but I still couldn't recall clearly what had happened. It started to drag less than 50 pages in and I decided to set it aside after page 80.