You Belong with me...? Tim O. Fletcher

[Ulysses]

You Belong with Me?
By Tim O. Fletcher
2017
Four stars

Given that it’s a novella based on a fantasy about a Taylor Swift song, this is pretty good.

It’s embarrassing for an old man to confess being a Taylor Swift Fan, but both “You Belong with Me” and the gay spoof on it that I found online years ago have stuck with me. Clearly the author, whatever his/her real name is, loved that video as much as I did.

And I’m grateful.

Fletcher is a pretty clever writer, giving a strong first-person voice to Tyler Evans’ proud almost-out nerd. This is a boy who knows himself and is not passively mooning over the hot jock (which is a clear trope in YA/LGBT stories). I loved Tyler, and through him learned to understand the real Brad Stevenson, outwardly the golden boy, but privately torn with personal conflict and unhappiness. Fletcher takes the story far beyond the one-note story arc of the two videos. He befriends a young man in real pain, which is of course the root of what happens afterward.

And the author, who can’t quite disguise his/her Australian roots, doesn’t leave the parents out—at least Evan’s mother, who, in spite of being nameless, carries a huge weight in this narrative.