ARC Review: Trailer Trash by Marie Sexton

Trailer Trash
by Marie Sexton
Published by Riptide Publishing
Ebook (received via NetGalley)
YA, LGBT, romance, contemporary

It’s 1986, and what should have been the greatest summer of Nate Bradford’s life goes sour when his parents suddenly divorce. Now, instead of spending his senior year in his hometown of Austin, Texas, he’s living with his father in Warren, Wyoming, population 2,833 (and Nate thinks that might be a generous estimate). There’s no swimming pool, no tennis team, no mall—not even any MTV. The entire school’s smaller than his graduating class back home, and in a town where the top teen pastimes are sex and drugs, Nate just doesn’t fit in.

Then Nate meets Cody Lawrence. Cody’s dirt-poor, from a broken family, and definitely lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Nate’s dad says Cody’s bad news. The other kids say he’s trash. But Nate knows Cody’s a good kid who’s been dealt a lousy hand. In fact, he’s beginning to think his feelings for Cody go beyond friendship.

Admitting he might be gay is hard enough, but between small-town prejudices and the growing AIDS epidemic dominating the headlines, a town like Warren, Wyoming, is no place for two young men to fall in love.

Trailer Trash was one of my favourite reads of 2016. I absolutely fell in love with it, which is why it has been so hard to write a cohesive review of it.

First of all, Trailer Trash was one of the most authentic books I've read; it felt so real, the small town life in the middle of nowhere at the end of the 1980's. Which tells a lot about Sexton's writing skills as I've never lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere nor was I born in the 1980's. It just felt so real, I could imagine Warren and all its inhabitants. The story really takes you back in time.

The characters were perfection because of all their flaws. Nate was a sweetheart and I adored him, but he still had flaws; he was a bit obvious of certain things and times which caused some trouble. But he always meant well, and was determined to do what he felt was the right thing, and especially in the beginning Nate didn't care what people thought about him in Warren, or his friendship with Cody who no one seemed to like. And Cody, oh boy, he needed all the hugs. I absolutely loved him, and I kept wishing all the happiness for him. Cody was the scapegoat of the town because he was poor and because he was different in the way that wasn't acceptable at the time. Still, he was strong and refused to care that majority of the town thought that he wasn't worth anything.

It was also a great thing, that the story explored Nate's relationship with his newly divorced father, and with his mother who stayed in Texas. Cody's relationship and family dynamic with his mother was also equally explored, which I think made the story even more well fleshed - it wasn't just about Nate and Cody and how they found each other and learned how to stay in each other's lives when people were against it. No, the story was about so much more than simply that. It was about Nate growing up and learning how to live in a situation where his parents were divorced, when he was dragged to a town where he knew no one and couldn't find his place - and it was about Nate finding out who he was and what kind of man he wanted grow up to be. It was about Cody struggling to fight the odds and taking control of the direction where his life was going - to Cody finally reach for what he truly wanted. It was story about self-discovery and courage and love and acceptance.

Trailer Trash was brilliant. It was a stunning story which captivated me and I couldn't put it down until I reached the very end. It was a story so full of feels that even now, few months after finishing it, I still feel them. I love the story, and it'll stay with me a long time.

I highly recommend this to everyone.

5 of 5 stars.

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Thank you, Riptide Publishing, for giving me a chance to read and review Trailer Trash!

(A copy of this ebook was provided in return for an honest review.)