The last summer before Dade goes to college is a time when everything changes. And that's not a bad thing - he wouldn't mind a change from his closeted friend with benefits and hostile, homophobic peers and a way to get away from his parents' crumbling marriage. When he meets Alex Kincaid, he finds that he can and should be willing to expect more for himself.

Nick Burd presents us with an incredibly well-written tale about Dade and the people in his life. This coming-of-age story is one that seems to capture what it means to grow up, to go from being a teenager to being an adult. There's no instant moment that it happens, but when it does, we change as people and we change how we see the world. And Dade is no exception.

Content warning: mentions of suicide ( )

This was an easy, fairly lightweight book to read. It covers some familiar territory, the coming of age of a gay teenager in his last year of high school. It was somewhat ordinary, with a plot twist at the end that was not completely predictable. There were moments that did not seem to work, yet these were not sufficient to derail the narrative. I'm not sure that any of the characters were all that interesting, much less convincing, but the story held my interest and for that I have to give it credit. ( )

Teen fiction. Decent coming-of-age story that would probably fall through the cracks if not for the fact that the main character is gay. Likeable, believable characters. ( )

[review written 2011]

This is my second time attempting to read The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd, but only my first time finishing it, so I’m counting this as a “new book”. It was a very good novel. I found myself laughing out loud sometimes, which got awkward in class, and Dade was a very cute main character, but not entirely likable. He got drunk far too many times in my opinion. I loved his and Alex’s and Pablo’s relationship (not Pablo himself; Pablo, in Dade’s words, was a dick).

What I didn’t like much about The Vast Fields of Ordinary was that the girl, Jenny Moore’s subplot didn’t seem to add to the story and could have done without, and that the conclusion seemed a little foregone. It was also kind of strange that the Hamiltons had a pool in their backyard, but hey, I guess people do have pools in their backyard. All in all, quite an enjoyable book. ( )