Derek’s family is coping with the death of an unborn child and they probably don’t understand that Derek has issues of his own and in the end, they have not really understood him at all.

If not for the contemporary storyline about Derek, Nathan and Nick, this could have been without an issue a young adult novel the 11 years old Derek is facing all the issues of a young boy entering the teen years, the discovery of love, sex and death. Split is Derek’s today life, knowing he has all the reason to love Nathan, successful and handsome, but not able to do that, since, in a way, Derek has always been in love with Nick, and now that Nick is back in town, there is no way Derek can marry Nathan and move with him to Milan. Split was also Derek, too young at the time to understand what he was feeling for Nick, but nevertheless feeling it and being scared strange enough, for how angry and rebellious Nick was, being gay himself seemed to not being an issue (actually he was bisexual, another “splitting” in the story) and he was the only one that helped a bit Derek coping with that discovery. Split is Nick’s life, now and before, a dyslexic young boy with huge potential but also with a lot of repressed rage. Split means many things in the novel: the storyline is split in two, the 11 years old Derek in love with his 15 years old neighbour Nicolai Lund, his best friend Boone’s older brother, and the 28 years old Derek in an abusive relationship with Nathan and struggling to face the imminent lost of his dear aunt Fran, the only relative who always understood him. Elisa_rolle Mel Bossa is again a debut author surprising me with her skills to tell a story that is always the same (being young, gay, in love and scared) in a way that makes it unique.

Split by Mel Bossa