Jo Ramsey

A nicely done short story about a kid discovering that's it's OK to be asexual and trying to explain how he feels to other people.

A lot of people don't understand or get what it means not to be interested or attracted in a sexual or even romantic way to other people. Though this a short story, the author sets up the scenario nicely, giving us a taste of what it's like to be constantly nagged about or teased for not having or being interested in a partner and how annoying it can be to have people constantly going on and on about their SO/boy/girl/etc.-friend.

This is the second book I've read by Jo Ramsey and I think I'll be looking for more of her stories to read.

Thank you to Preston of the Complaint Department for the recommend!… (meer)

‘Where No One Knows’ is a gripping, suspenseful, and very touching story about growing up and finding a place in the world despite the fact that you’re different from everyone around you and don’t seem to fit in anywhere. Kellan is sixteen, and unlike any of the people around him not just because he is a transgender boy, but because he has psychic abilities. With a strictly religious stepfather and a mother who is suddenly afraid of him and kicks him out, Kellan has to learn how to survive and find a safe place to stay. Worse than that, because he hurt the man who attacked him and that abuser was a friend of his stepfather’s, Kellan is now also on the run from the man who married his mother.

It is hard for anyone who has not been through abuse and rejection to imagine what it’s like, but Kellan’s story says it all. Following him on his journey across America from Arizona to Boston, as he learns to figure out whom to trust and when to run, is a good way of beginning to understand. His fear, his anger at his helplessness, his inability to sleep because he doesn’t know when it’s safe are bad enough. But he also has to deal with trying to control his psychic ability – the heat that pours from him every time he is afraid or angry, or upset – or risk burning everything and everyone around him.

There are a few people who help him along the road, some of them with psychic powers of their own, others just because they are friendly people. Not a concept Kellan allows himself to believe in, but often he doesn’t have a choice. When he runs into Shad and finds out there is a group of people like him in Boston and they are willing to offer sanctuary and support, careful optimism and a lack of other choices has Kellan traveling in that direction. But not everything is as it seems, and there is more than one twist along the way to Kellan being safe.

If you like stories about young guys figuring out where and how they fit in the world, if you enjoy a paranormal storyline that is reminiscent of the X-Men, and if you’re looking for a fantastic coming of age story that is as suspenseful as it is intriguing, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Harmony Ink Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.… (meer)