Peters, Julie Ann (2004). Far From Xanadu. NY: Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown and Co. ISBN: 031615881X. 288 pages.
Mike is a high school sports star in a small, Kansas town and is best friends with Jamie, one of the most popular cheerleaders. When Xanadu--sophisticated, sly and beautiful--moves to town, Mike's fascination with the new girl threatens Mike and Jamie's old order. Sounds like the premise for your generic Y.A. romance, doesn't it? Here's the twist: Mike is a girl and Jamie is a boy. Both friends identify as gay teens, but, in the rural midwest, find few social and emotional outlets. Mike is intrigued by and attracted to Xanadu from the start and the two begin a friendship that Mike believes could escalate to a more intimate relationship. Hurt, heartache and the empty plains stretch through a novel that owes a lot to M.E. Kerr's Deliver Us from Evie. Peters, however, has proven herself before in similar novels (like the terrific Luna) and concludes Far From Xanadu realistically but hopefully. The first person narration is well written and moving; even when I KNEW that Xanadu was going to let Mike down, I found myself hoping that maybe Mike's fanatasies about romance with the Denver denizen would come true anyway. This book may not be for everyone--that Mike and Jamie experience absolutely no torment or even minor discrimination as the Only Two Gay People in Town seems unrealistic given the book's rural setting (I may be exhibiting some regionalist prejudice here)--however, I think that anyone with an itching to start his or her "real" life, tempered with the knowledge that realizing that dream might involve leaving what seems like the best, safe place, will find echoes of his or her voice in this novel.
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