Us Three

Title:  Us Three

Author:  Mia Kerick

Publisher:  Dreamspinner Press

Length:  180 pages

Rating:  A List

Up All Night Satisfaction

Blurb:  A Harmony Ink Press Young Adult Title 

In his junior year at a public high school, sweet, bright Casey Minton’s biggest worry isn’t being gay. Keeping from being too badly bullied by his so-called friends, a group of girls called the Queen Bees, is more pressing. Nate De Marco has no friends, his tough home life having taken its toll on his reputation, but he’s determined to get through high school. Zander Zane’s story is different: he’s popular, a jock. Zander knows he’s gay, but fellow students don’t, and he’d like to keep it that way. 

No one expects much when these three are grouped together for a class project, yet in the process the boys discover each other’s talents and traits, and a new bond forms. But what if Nate, Zander, and Casey fall in love—each with the other and all three together? Not only gay but also a threesome, for them high school becomes infinitely more complicated and maybe even dangerous. To survive and keep their love alive, they must find their individual strengths and courage and stand together, honest and united. If they can do that, they might prevail against the Queen Bees and a student body frightened into silence—and even against their own crippling fears.

 

Review:  This book will shatter you. Destroy you. Take your heart and have you weeping on the ground. Seriously, I had to stop and take a walk to finish. My husband was all worried something was seriously wrong, I just held up my kindle, “Only that the perfect book was written.” 

I’m trying to write this review, and I’m struggling. First, it’s told in all three boys points of view. Very few authors can head hop successfully. In this genre only the greats like Cardeno C  and Mary Calmes come to mind. Add Mia Kerick to the list. Each voice was unique. There was no confusion, rather complete clarity as you moved from one pov to another.

Lets start with Casey. Why? Because it’s Casey that unites them. Settles them. Gives them cause to embrace who they are. Casey is wounded. He was terribly bullied. More than that. Assaulted. You see it. You see his pain. Him trying to survive and just get through the school year without falling apart. He is incredibly self aware. He knows he is standing on a precipice of depression and mental breakdown and living. Everyday he fights for that right. He sees the good in everyone. He is smart, really smart, kind, gentle, beautiful. 

Zander we see through the eyes of his letters to his brother. He is what I thought I expected in a high school boy. He is finding himself. He watches and listens. He tries to do the right thing and sometimes he does. And sometimes he doesn’t. When he doesn’t he feels it, and it makes him grow. Thankfully his brother pushes him to be a good man. Loves him, encourages him, and allows him the space to make choices. Zander is the peacemaker of the three. His confidence and actions allow them to move from friendship to something else. 

Nate…oh gosh, Nate is everything. Nate’s homelife is destructive. He made mistakes, gained a reputation and is comfortable hiding behind that while he improves himself, gets sober, does well in school, takes care of his sister. If it’s Casey that gives them purpose, it’s Nate that holds them together. Nate takes care of his own, and very quickly these boys become his. He pulls them up and together they work on school, friendship, taking care of Casey, changing the school. 

Things are not easy. They have more downs than ups and they have to find acceptance of who they are and what their relationship looks like, as well as fighting real evil. 

I know you hear the phrase “It’s a must read” a lot on review sites. Even on this one. But this book needs to fly to the top of your TBR pile. It needs to be read. A friend and author said once that he thinks everyone has a story to tell. Mia Kerick has written many amazing books, but I think this story might be the story she was meant to share with the world. As the world needs to read it.

Reviewed by Beans