Inspired by our end-of-year laments of not reading enough in 2011, BYT as a collective decided to take things into our own carpel-tunneled-from-too-much-internet hands and start reading more, as a whole. So, every week (and sometimes more than once a week) we commit to reviewing a book we think you'd love. Cool? Cool. Feel free to post reading suggestions for us in the comments.
- BOOK: Hot Head by Damon Suede
- BOOK TYPE: Gay Romance (no, no…keep reading)
- YOU MAY ENJOY THIS IF YOU LIKED: any movie ever put out by TLA Releasing; you read GQ for the pictures (as though there are words in there) and use your imagination to tell your own love stories; or you’ve always wanted a book like Rachel’s, but super gay.
I need to offer a disclaimer: I haven’t read a whole lot of I’ve never read any gay romance before. I’ve read some heavy(ish)-hitting literature with lgbt themes and some gay fiction here and there, but never any straight-up (#puns) gay romance. I just assumed it would be full of too much camp, cliché, and tragically trite behavior—all seriously devoid of reality. I figured slogging through all that mess wouldn’t be worth it for…the good parts. For this review, my intent was to read a work of that genre and then post a review as campy and cliché as the book. In the case of Hot Head, while the book was all of those things (it really was), it was also engaging, relatable, romantic without being sickening, and pretty f***ing hot. Does the book occasionally have some problems with stereotyping, and/or contrived scenarios, and/or a “woe is me” attitude? Sure. Does it matter? Nope.
Reading Hot Head for the sex is kinda like watching Battlestar Galactica for the sci-fi. The sci-fi parts are all good and necessary, but eventually you realize you’re in it for the characters. The main players in this beach read for dudes that like dudes are Griff and Dante, firefighters of the FDNY ten years after 9/11. The Irish ginger (uh huh) Griff has been an all-but-adopted member of Dante’s large Italian family for a long time. Even selecting the same occupation after high school, Dante and Griff are as close as brothers, but with all the benefits of friendship (like the occasional threesome—totally normal for almost brothers that are friends, right?).
Life for these two single fellas in their physical firefighting prime ain’t all heroes, glory, and using that heroism and glory for its sexual advantage in hookin-up with the ladies. The totally closeted Griff is dealing with impossible sexual feelings for his friend Dante, who can’t seem to keep the bank from coming after his house because of missed mortgage payments. See where this is going? You almost do. Just when you think Griff is all set up to help Dante avoid bankruptcy and form some kind of weird, co-dependent relationship that could get ugly right quick, Dante finds the perfect solution to both of their problems: hothead.com—a gay porn site that is more than happy to pay him (and his friends) to bring in their firemen uniforms and put on a show for their internet audience. Dante doesn’t know that he is both solving and confounding Griff’s problem when he asks him to participate on the site as a duo. Now do you see where this is going?
This book never stops honestly being what it is. It never shies away from being dirtily, filthily good. At the same time, it’s easy to forget you’re reading a dirty, filthy book, and not just a book with characters that happen to be crazy sexy all the time. While a part of you would like to skip right to the juicy stuff and drop the whole character development bit, you can’t help but care about these dudes. They are seriously flawed in boring ways that one can’t help but identify with. The boring parts do occasionally drag out with a little too much harping on this insecurity or that need and want, but you can make do with a skipped paragraph here and there. Then to make up for it, there are lurv scenes, so it’s totally cool.
[Despite applauding this book as being good as far as gay romance, I cannot recommend it as literature, and cannot hazard any guess as to its overall value for breeders, be they male or female. That said, you know you wanna read it, just to see, right? Go get the sample on your Kindle and experiment a little.]
- NEXT BOOK I PLAN TO READ: The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
Previously in BYT BOOK CLUB:
God loves a cheerful giver.
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