Golden Boy

Title: Golden Boy
Author: Abigail Tarttelin
Published: 2013 by Phoenix
Genre: Drama!
Pages: 406 plus extra bits


The Walkers live in a small town near Oxford, and the parents are well-known members of the community with reputations to keep up. Older son Max Walker is sixteen: he's the football hero of the school, works hard and gets good grades, likes kissing pretty girls and is a patient big brother to Daniel and a good son to his career ambitious parents. Max also has a secret: he was born intersex, not wholly a boy or a girl. Only a few people outside the family know. As far as the rest of his world is concerned, Max is a handsome young man. Then something horrible happens, and Max's whole world threatens to come crashing down as he starts to question his identity.


I'm quite interested in gender and sexuality and all of their variations, and Golden Boy was a wonderful read, if painful at places. There are some heavy themes here but Tarttelin writes beautifully, and the book is great for younger audiences, and a good introduction to people who see gender more as an either-or thing. The story is told from the point of view of several characters including Max, his girlfriend, little brother and mother. I loved the characters and had trouble putting the book down when it was time to get off the bus or back to work. But who wouldn't rather read a good book than get back to work, right?



This is the most embarrassing, horrible day of my life, and if I can just get through it, stay blank, breathe in and out, keep smiling, keep nodding, it'll be over, and tomorrow will be better, and the next day will be better than that and soon it'll be like it never happened.