A Hundred Thousand Words

This is a wonderful book and I really loved it.First of all let's talk about that gorgeous cover [bc:A Hundred Thousand Words 28198005 A Hundred Thousand Words Nyrae Dawn https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454294693s/28198005.jpg 46868870] for the audio and [bc:A Hundred Thousand Words 27111078 A Hundred Thousand Words Nyrae Dawn https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1458698743s/27111078.jpg 46868870] for my ebook. I love them! Beauties.Tobias Jackson is a young man whom life has cheated of a normal and caring family but who finds a substitute in the Baxters, particularly in his best friend Chris who never sees him as other, either for his sexual orientation or his skin color. Chris's older brother Levi also features prominently in his teenage fantasies and when Toby is 20 and comes back home from college during the Christmas break the teenage daydreams become reality but at what price? Are they real? Sustainable or worth pursuing? Furthermore who is Levi really? And can Toby let him or anyone else in?I think what I liked best about this book is that more than being an NA about young love it's a book about identity and it applies to both the Baxter brothers, Levi & Chris as well as Toby. Each one is struggling with what it means to become an adult and none of it is the obvious you would expect i.e. being gay or black. While Toby is self-aware and talks about how he felt different in a small town in Oregon for being black and, once he entered high school, openly gay his main struggles are with letting himself be open to love and be loved because of abandonment issues and and an inability to communicate because of how virtually catatonic his father is when it comes to talking about anything important. Ironically Toby is an English major. Levi is struggling with always being the golden boy and meeting parental expectations. Being perfect is very hard.And Chris struggles with what he perceives his role to be, that of “the other son” the one that doesn't quite measure up, the one who is two steps behind. I think that all of the voices sounded authentic and the pacing of the development of the relationship between Toby and Levi was done just right. Nothing was rushed or too drawn out. There were no instant declarations of love but rather progressive lust to like to love. I liked how neither Levi nor his family had any issues whatsoever with his sexuality and his bisexuality wasn't erased in some nonsense GFY trope. I liked how Toby had to first address the issues with his father and childhood before he could openly love and accept love from Levi and to some extent the whole Baxter family.I loved Xavier and would love a story about him. I loved that the perhaps unexpected sexual dynamic between Levi and Toby and I love how Levi may be conflicted about things in his life but he's clear and unequivocal in about how he feels about Toby and unabashedly shows his affection.p.s. The audio by [a:Sean Crisden 4531094 Sean Crisden https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] is very nice. Smooth.