"Boys is compellingly realistic fiction. Its fantastic details, interesting construction, and humor make it worth the read."

Semegran’s work is evocative and replete with relatable, recognizable characters (Sam’s doting grandparents; Sarah, the aging eternal hippy who regales others with tales from her youth) who find comfort in friendship. The narratives offer spot-on description delivered in a voice with a natural flair for scene and story. For example, in “Good Night, Jerk Face,” Sam describes his grandmother as “thin as a stalk of wheat, her left hand gripping a highball glass of scotch on the rocks, her right hand pinching a Virginia Slims 120 cigarette with an ash two inches long.”

A certain innocent hopefulness winds its way through each of these stories in which the characters want something, both tangible (money) and intangible (to understand where they are headed in life and how they will get there). With its descriptive flair and flashes of humor, Boys offers an engaging read—one short fiction fans are sure to enjoy.

Uniting and enriching Semegran’s human-interest stories is his writing style. Semegran weaves in familiar and even expected dialogue scenes while carefully crafting unexpected nuances to his plots. He also has an ability to draw his readers right into the heart of his well-developed underdog characters and their emotional well being. Amid subtle and not so subtle twists and turns, Semegran leaves his audiences ruminating on his surprising story closures.

With nary a dull moment, Scott Semegran’s BOYS features short stories filled with unexpected nuances which draw readers right into the heart of his well-developed characters.

Semegran artfully weaves together lighthearted comedy and emotional turbulence in each of the stories, and in the last one, Seff practically sustains his meager survival with jocose banter. The writing is sharp and unpretentiously thoughtful, and since each of the main characters finds solace in companionship, this is an affecting literary depiction of the comforting power of friendship. Each of the stories can be read on its own, but taken together, they make a coherent, thematic whole, skillfully produced.

An endearing collection that deftly captures the need for youthful fellowship.