Hello, I Lied

Lang is spending the summer living in a small caretaker's cottage with his mother on the property of retired rock and roll legend Ben Nevada. His mother has been hired to do some cooking and caretaking around the property for Nevada, and Lang will also do some odd jobs around the property as part of the deal. Lang's mother is one of the few people who knows that he is gay and that his friend Alex, who sometimes spends weekends with them when his stage acting career allows him to get away, is really more than just a friend. Lang hasn't even told his closest friends and his former girlfriend that he is gay. This is the summer he may finally have to let his secret out. As if Lang doesn't have enough on his mind, Ben Nevada announces that the teenage daughter of family friends in France is coming to spend part of the summer with him. She has fallen in love with a grape picker whom her family thinks is below her. They hope that if they send her to live with Nevada, she might meet and fall in love with a more suitable young man who will make her forget about this French boy. Nevada wants Lang to agree to show this girl around and introduce her to young people around town. Lang refuses, but then when the girl arrives, he finds himself spending more and more time with her. Alex is even getting jealous of the amount of time Lang spends with Huguette. And Lang is feeling more confused than ever, mainly because he can't figure out what he feels about Huguette, but he suspects it may be attraction. I really liked the relationship between Lang and Alex; they were a pretty devoted and stable couple and they dealt with the rest of the world around them pretty well. I also liked the glimpse into the life of a former rock star--it sounded like an exciting life but also a very difficult one. However, I didn't like the thought that it would just take the right girl to turn a gay man straight, or that if gays tried hard enough to be attracted to the opposite sex, they could be. It seemed that this is the message some people could take out of this book.

Hello, I lied was the first "gay" book I ever read (had the courage to buy?) Reading it was a very powerful experience for me, and I re-read it several times so I could get a hold of all the emotions I felt after devoring it the first time. A truly touching story with real characters who aren't perfect that never deals in black and white Hello, I lied is a wonderful book, and one that I would recomend to any teen, especially if your gay or have a friend who is recently coming out. It's a honest book probably above all else.

I have read this book three times and still I love it! Every character in this book, from Lang, who is comfortable with his homosexuality but afraid of coming out to his friends, to the bitter ex-rock star Nevada, and the french Audrey Hepburn look alike Hugette who is sent to the states from France to distance her from her grape-picker boyfriend, are so human you feel a commection to them, even if you're not gay, rich, or a tennager. Just read this book!! You will not be dissapointed!