REVIEW: Running with Lions
REVIEW: Running with Lions by Julian Winters (June 7. 2018); 320 pages. Available from Duet Books, an imprint of Interlude Press, here. Â
When I was coming up, queer YA was not available. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when my adolescence was in bloom, I felt lucky to have access to Daniel Pinkwaterâs quirky, witty novels and novels like Forever, Ahbra (by Mary Anderson) as an alternative to my momâs old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries. I never dreamed books could be written about real kidsâqueer, of color, smart, struggling, complex reflections of me and the other kids I knew.
As an adult, Iâm not one of those avid YA readers. Iâve moved on, and thereâs so much not-good YA out there⌠I like complexity in a novel, darkness, a bit of grit and no melodrama, and that order seems in short supply in most YA. All this is to say Iâm not a die-hard YA reader like some adults I know, but I can really appreciate a great YA story when I come across one.
Running with Lions by Julian Winters hits the spot for me. Itâs many things that did not interest me as a kid: boy MCs, sports⌠well, I guess thatâs the list. Nevertheless, itâs a beautifully-written, softly suspenseful queer young-person romance, by turns tender and stubbly and gently humorous. Itâs not deliberately wallowing in ignorance of the world (which is what turns me off about many YA booksâyoung folk know whatâs going on, and they feel it intensely; no need to pander, authors).
Sebastian Hughes goes to training camp for his high school soccer team, the Bloomington Lions, and comes face-to-face with his former childhood bestie, Emir Shah, with whom Sebastian had fallen out of touch. Emir is sort of a social reject, both because heâs crusty and scowly, and because heâs not very good at soccer. (I marveled-cheered because the fact that heâs gay and brown and Muslim did not factor at all into his exile. I mean, finally.) At first Emir pushes everyoneâincluding Sebastianâaway. But Sebastian persists, offering to help Emir train and practice at night, alone, on the field. Sebastian has to fight through that prickly exterior to get to the soft, nougaty center that is the Emir he remembers, but it winds up worth it; slowly, Emir cracks open.
Sebastian, who identifies as bisexual, has never been in love with a boy before, but he falls for Emir (who has). The rest of the novel is a slow, careful unfolding of their relationship, little advances and retreats, skittish acceptance and unpredictably cold rejections. Itâs rather like watching someone try to trap a feral cat, but in a good way.
What, perhaps, appeals to me most now, as an adult looking back, is that not only is the queer romance front and center, respected for its complexity and not just used for its queerness, but the major problem in the romance isnât homophobia, itâs history and mistrust and other interpersonal complications. Queer people, in other words, get to be just as interesting as straight ones, and we get our full and difficult-human story here. The other players donât care about the queerness, and even the coach is supportive and doesnât pay mind to his playersâ sexuality or masculinity. (How different from Mr. S--, the coach at my high school who giggled and eye-rolled his way through teaching sex ed like a frat boy and never once even mentioned queerness.)
Itâs radical that a queer love story for young folk is not centered on homophobia. (In fact, much of the team is either gay or bisexual, and sexuality is hardly an issue.) I mean, it's really, truly radical. Everyoneâkids and adultsâneeds stories like this.
In some ways, this idea (that a teenâs queerness is not an issue, that there are these queer-majority sports team-havens for kids) seems like a fantasy. Yet all fiction is fantasy (thatâs kind of the point). Every single novel contains a made-up world and made-up people. As long as weâre fantasizing, how about a new fantasy with better values, one that doesnât depress or scare the boop out of young queer kids just coming into their own, one that gives them something to dream about and wish for?
School librarianlgs, please grab this book for your stacks. Parents, slip this into your kidâs bookshelf. Request it at your local bookstore and library. Tell them an unathletic old queer lady sent you. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
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