Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Kory was having enough trouble in high school. His girlfriend just dumped him, his poetry made him a target for ridicule, and college applications were looming. The very last thing he needed was to fall in love with another boy.

Waterways is the complete novel from award-winning author Kyell Gold in his universe of anthropomorphic animal characters that includes his beloved story "Aquifers." Join Kory the otter as his feelings and faith collide, washing away the life he knew. His brother Nick, friends Samaki the fox and Malaya the bat, and Father Joe are there to help, but it's Kory who has to navigate the thrills and perils of the new waterways that make up his life.

At stake? Nothing much ~ just a chance at true love and happiness. And he still has to graduate from high school ...

BOOK REVIEW:
This awesome gay coming-of-age novel is a must-read.

Written by Kyell Gold, in a world roughly similar to the modern-day United States, it is populated with animals who live, play and work in a world like ours, who have lives and hopes and problems like ours. And, unfortunately, gay furries have the same problems in their world as gay humans do in ours. It's never easy to grow up being different in any way, and Waterways explores the experiences of Kory, a young otter. Kyell Gold's website pares it down to one sentence: "A high school student comes to terms with his sexual identity, throwing his world into turmoil." That says it all, in one way, but this book is so much more.

What sets this apart from your typical 'coming out' story is that the plight of a gay teenager isn't simply solved by coming out. When that happens in a story, it's heart-warming, but it isn't always quite like that in real life, is it? It sure isn't like that for Kory.

This is a story about discovering yourself, about self-identity and the role of family and religion and love in all its forms. Although sexuality is an important and explicit part of the story, this is not erotica: fucking does not solve the problem, and, in any case, is not itself the problem. It's a part of life to be explored and cherished.

Kyell Gold expertly brings the world of Waterways to life, with its parallels to the human world, but also with its furry differences. In the furry world, animals have the emotions and abilities of humans, but their own characters are colored by their species. For example, Kory is an otter, so of course an otter family would have a stream running through their house. Kory's feelings, however, are universal, as he struggles to accept and embrace his identity. His relations with his family and friends, both painful and wonderful, are clearly delineated here and will resonate with you, the reader.

This is the kind of book you will want to read and re-read. It's firmly on my keeper shelf.

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