I know a YA book has succeeded when it drags me back to my teen years – which were a really long time ago. This particular YA book succeeded in an even more significant way. The whole focus of the book is a group of high school soccer players and Julian Winters got me to love these guys against every instinct I harbor from my own teen years. (I played soccer for the fall term of my senior year in high school, only because I had to – and I was miserable.) My relationship to all sports is seriously limited because of my teenage experience with jocks as a newly-aware Kinsey 6. How much I loved this book is remarkable given that the central theme of the narrative is the focus of Sebastian Hughes’s whole life on his soccer team – and that’s also his central dilemma.
Now, the author has gone to great – and creditable – pains to make this a different group of teenage athletes. They’re racially diverse and, orientation-wise it’s not a solo performance either. One of the boys is gay, another is open-minded and curious, while the main character, Sebastian Hughes, owns his bisexuality from the start. There’s more than tolerance here, there’s intention and acceptance. These boys are typically gross teenage boys, but they’re compassionate and loving to each other in a way that virtually didn’t exist when I was a teenager.
The other central dilemma in “Running with Lions” is Emir Shah, the sullen Pakistani-American boy who once was Sebastian’s closest friend, but who disappeared to England at a critical juncture in their lives. When he suddenly appears at the team’s last summer soccer camp, Sebastian has to face the loss of that old friendship, as well as his newly embraced sexuality, while keeping his teammates from screwing up their last summer together as a team.
It is a story that could have gone wrong in so many ways, but Winters keeps the humor going, makes all of the boys interesting and sympathetic, and builds the resurrected friendship between Sebastian and Emir as its emotional center. It forced me to forget all my own personal issues with high school jocks, and simply to embrace the Lions as if they were my friends.
Boys can love each other without getting tangled up in toxic masculinity. Boys can be in love with each other without fearing reprisals from their friends and teammates. There is only one teenage girl in this book – and she is awesome. She teaches this band of brothers a different kind of acceptance and a greater degree of compassion. This subplot resonates with the other ones, and of course with the central story of Sebastian and Emir. It is beautifully constructed and emotionally very satisfying. As a first novel, this is a major score.
BY Julian Winters
Duet, and Imprint of Interlude Press, 2018
Five stars
Really good. Uplifting, touching, funny, different.
I know a YA book has succeeded when it drags me back to my teen years – which were a really long time ago. This particular YA book succeeded in an even more significant way. The whole focus of the book is a group of high school soccer players and Julian Winters got me to love these guys against every instinct I harbor from my own teen years. (I played soccer for the fall term of my senior year in high school, only because I had to – and I was miserable.) My relationship to all sports is seriously limited because of my teenage experience with jocks as a newly-aware Kinsey 6. How much I loved this book is remarkable given that the central theme of the narrative is the focus of Sebastian Hughes’s whole life on his soccer team – and that’s also his central dilemma.
Now, the author has gone to great – and creditable – pains to make this a different group of teenage athletes. They’re racially diverse and, orientation-wise it’s not a solo performance either. One of the boys is gay, another is open-minded and curious, while the main character, Sebastian Hughes, owns his bisexuality from the start. There’s more than tolerance here, there’s intention and acceptance. These boys are typically gross teenage boys, but they’re compassionate and loving to each other in a way that virtually didn’t exist when I was a teenager.
The other central dilemma in “Running with Lions” is Emir Shah, the sullen Pakistani-American boy who once was Sebastian’s closest friend, but who disappeared to England at a critical juncture in their lives. When he suddenly appears at the team’s last summer soccer camp, Sebastian has to face the loss of that old friendship, as well as his newly embraced sexuality, while keeping his teammates from screwing up their last summer together as a team.
It is a story that could have gone wrong in so many ways, but Winters keeps the humor going, makes all of the boys interesting and sympathetic, and builds the resurrected friendship between Sebastian and Emir as its emotional center. It forced me to forget all my own personal issues with high school jocks, and simply to embrace the Lions as if they were my friends.
Boys can love each other without getting tangled up in toxic masculinity. Boys can be in love with each other without fearing reprisals from their friends and teammates. There is only one teenage girl in this book – and she is awesome. She teaches this band of brothers a different kind of acceptance and a greater degree of compassion. This subplot resonates with the other ones, and of course with the central story of Sebastian and Emir. It is beautifully constructed and emotionally very satisfying. As a first novel, this is a major score.