Lord of the Trash by Sarah MacManus

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Lord of the Trash is only a novella, but I really enjoyed it and when I arrived at the end I was really hoping for more. It’s not strictly a gay romance, it’s maybe more a Young Adult story, but basically it’s the story of two brother and sister who need to know each other and what they want to be in their life. While for Sam, 17 years old, this is normal, for Dana, 32 years old, that was time.

Dana and Sam have the same father but different mothers, and when Sam is orphaned of both his parents, Dana is legally his caretaker. Dana, an army nurse, has little of maternal in her, she is more a soldier than a mother, but she knows what a due is, and there is no question that she will take Sam for the year that is missing to his college time.

Dana is living in a rural country, far away from the city, and when Sam arrives, with his skinny jeans, tight shirts and pink scarf, she is a little worried, not by the idea that Sam is gay, but that he will be ostracized by the other boys and girls. I don’t know if Dana is denying it, or if for her is really no issue at all, but the “gay thing” never crosses her mind, she never once used the word gay to refer to her brother, never when a twenty years something young man knocks at her door searching for Sam.

Sean, apparently Sam’s boyfriend from Chicago, installs himself in Dana’s house, sleeping in Sam’s room, starting to behave like a 100% house husband, and neither then Dana’s question her brother’s sexuality, or having a doubt on the fact his brother his underage and the other guy is not. Again, not since she knows they are having sex and she doesn’t care, but since the thought of sex never crosses her mind, when it does, she is the first to point the finger to Sean and to the fact that Sam is underage.

So yes, this is an unusual coming of age story, almost innocent in its way, but really nice.

Amazon Kindle: Lord of the Trash
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