One Man Guy by Michael Barakavia

Title: One Man Guy
By: Michael Barakavia
Published: 2014
Call #: YA Fiction Barak.M

A book featuring a diverse cast, LGBTQIA characters, and Rufus Wainwright music; sign me up! One Man Guy by Michael Barakavia had all the makings of an amazing read. However, once I actually started to read the book I found it didn’t quite measure up to my expectations. There were things I liked about the book, so let’s highlight those. As I already mentioned the diversity worked really well for me, Alek’s Armenian family felt very authentic and very lovingly written. What I liked about the book, however, ends there. Ethan, Alek’s love interest, is presented to the reader first in one way, and then suddenly changes into a stereotype. While I realize multidimensional characters are great this didn’t feel authentic, it simply felt sloppy. Similarly the love story didn’t make a ton of sense, as the characters didn’t have much in common, nor did they ever find a ton of common ground. All in all I’m glad this book is around, but maybe don’t push it to the top of your to be read list.

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