'We're all sprinkled with crazy. Some of us are just better at hiding it.'
You know those books that stay with you for a long time after you've read it? Well, I think this is going to be one of those. The Drowners was incredible, from start to finish. I never know what to expect from a new author, and I often open that first page with a certain amount of trepidation. I needn't have worried about this one though, I was hooked.
Set in the early 1990s, Aaron is just beginning to understand his sexuality, and it's difficult, the stigma, the apprehension and the judgment of being queer in 1990s Ireland. Aaron is funny, so funny, and when he and Robbie get together the puns are never-ending. I highlighted just a couple of the lines, which had me spitting my coffee out!
'All those years without draining your nuts is enough to send you loopy.'
'That miserable old bollix isn't knocking on Heaven's door, he's booting it off its hinges.'
It wasn't lost on me that the protagonist has the same name as part of the author's and I have no idea whether this novel is semi-autobiographical. If it is, then it's even more heartbreaking, as some of the crap the main character went through was awful.
Check the trigger warnings before you read this, but if you're all good, then I'd 100% recommend you read it.
Thank you to David A. Anderson for the opportunity to read and review The Drowners.
About the Book
For Aaron, this world is an unfathomable puzzle. Haunted by disturbing dreams, he drifts through empty days, shielding himself behind sarcasm and cynical wit. After being expelled, he sees an opportunity to rewrite his future at a new school. Connecting over a shared love for De Niro films with Robbie, an aspiring actor of Jamaican descent, he unexpectedly finds his companion piece, one person who truly understands him. Together, they navigate the chaotic waters of adolescence, from dramatic first dates to sociopathic bullies, iconic concerts, drugs, and a dead body.
With adulthood fast approaching, can their unique bond survive the crushing weight of societal pressures and devastating revelations? Confronted by the ghosts of his past, Aaron must choose whether to blaze bright or fade away.
A funny and poignant meditation on the forces that shape us, The Drowners transports us back to a time when our tolerance for hypocrisy was zero and life seemed infinite.
Award-winning author of The Drowners, David Anderson hails from the cold, wet streets of Dublin. Like a Hummingbird, after college, he migrated south to warmer climes. Namely, sunny Spain, where he teaches students who are bemused by hearing the Queen's English delivered in an Irish brogue. In his early thirties, he caught the writing bug. In 2021, he won a YA Watty award.
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