The Long Run
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
2024 Stonewall Book Award Honor Book for Young Adult Literature
"A boldly authentic new voice in queer fiction." —Abdi Nazemian, author of Stonewall Honor book Like a Love Story and The Chandler Legacies
Two track and field athletes find an unexpected but powerful love in this unapologetically blunt and unforgettably real YA debut.
Sebastian Villeda is over it. Over his rep. Over his bros. Over being "Bash the Flash," fastest sprinter in South Jersey. His dad is gone, his mom is dead, and his stepfather is clueless. Bash has no idea what he wants out of life. Until he meets Sandro.
Sandro Miceli is too nice for his own good. The middle child in an always-growing, always-screaming Italian family, Sandro walks around on a broken foot to not bother his busy parents. All he wants is to get out and never look back.
When fate—in the form of a party that gets busted—brings these two very different boys together, neither of them could’ve predicted finding a love that they’d risk everything for…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
His girlfriend dumping him is the final straw for Black Mexican track star Sebastian Villeda—Bash the Flash—who's grieving the death of his mother while navigating tense relationships with his absent father and emotionally distant stepfather. He isolates himself from his friends and sets his sights on getting into Rutgers, the college his mother dreamed he'd one day attend. Hoping to end his self-imposed isolation, he begrudgingly shows up at a house party that's quickly busted. There, he meets shot-putter classmate Sandro Miceli, who is Italian American and who recently broke his foot after falling off his roof while attempting to find some peace in his bustling household. After the boys share a drunken kiss, Bash, who never thought he was queer, looks for opportunities to hang out with Sandro. Their burgeoning romance hits a rough patch when Bash accidentally reveals one of Sandro's secrets to his parents while attending dinner at their house. The duo's alternating perspectives are depicted via realistically crass teen narratives that showcase complexly rendered characters and fraught encounters; Sandro's erratic temper and Bash's dawning self-awareness regarding his sexuality present refreshingly credible images of the messy lives and desires of contemporary teens. Ages 14–up.
