Boys of Alabama

By Genevieve Hudson

Book Overview

"Daring, unusual . . . and startlingly fresh" (Don Noble, Alabama Public Radio), Boys of Alabama announced Genevieve Hudson's place in the canon of the southern gothic alongside Donna Tartt and Harper Lee. Newly arrived in Alabama, Max falls in love, questions his faith, and navigates a strange power. Although his German parents don't know what to make of a South pining for the past, shy Max thrives after being taken in by the football team. But when he meets fishnet-wearing Pan in physics class, they embark on a quixotic, consuming relationship. Writing in "prose that is always imaginative and sensual" (Sarah Neilson, Believer), Hudson offers a complex portrait of masculinity, religion, immigration, and the adolescent pressures that require total conformity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1631499025
• ISBN13: 9781631499029
• Release Date: May 2021
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Supernatural gay love, what's better?

If you like queer pining, coming of age YA romance novels, and a dollop of the paranormal, you'll like Boys of Alabama. I zoomed through this book, as I'd consider those parameters for my comfort readings, and although the dialog is a little too on the nose at times, the meat of this book is Hudson's mastery of prose. In the way they describe worlds colliding for Max, his experience moving to Alabama from Germany, we see mundanity through a beautiful lens. The end left me wanting in a less exciting way, I felt as though the author stopped mid thought, and it still frustrates me. My assumption is usually that there is a meaningful intention for an author to end a novel in such a way, but I keep thinking that in this case it detracted from the story more than it lifted. Despite this, I highly recommend this lovely slice of southern-gothic Americana. It is a lush world well-peopled.