Just a Dumb Surfer Dude 2, for the love of Logan, by Chase Connor

[Ulysses]

Just a Dumb Surfer Dude 2, for the love of Logan
By Chase Connor
The Lion Fish Press, 2019
Five stars

Just as thoughtful and funny as the previous one, “For the Love of Logan” isn’t anywhere as simple as the first book in this series was.

Chase Connor takes us deeper into the lives of Cooper Weissman and Logan Marshall, while Alex Johnson, Cooper’s boyfriend, becomes a catalyst for the emotional and physical action of the story. The gentleness of the first book is replaced by teenaged drama and angst, some of it surprisingly painful. Even in a world where parents and teachers are NOT a problem, coming to grips with who you are is a journey that sometimes hurts.

This is really Logan’s story, told through his eyes. Once more, parents are important---something I love in YA books. What gets acknowledged is the irrational feelings that go with being a teenager, the emotional reactions to things that cannot yet be seen in the context of lifelong experience.

There is a visceral honesty in Chase Connor’s writing that is welcome. As always with any YA book, I compare what I read with what I experienced half a century ago (yeah, I’m old enough to be Mr. Weissman’s father) as a teenager. Real life is never quite the same as life on the pages of a book, but this series rings pretty true for me. Book three is on my Kindle already.