Where You Are--"Public school is a world unto itself. It's okay to be gay; you just don't talk about it. It's an unspoken rule."

Title: Where You Are

Author: J. H. Trumble


What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer):  Robert is a high school senior who has never felt accepted by his dying father and feels lost in the shuffle of his demanding aunts and hospice care who have taken over the house.  Andrew is Robert's high school calculus teacher who bonds with Robert when Robert needs an adult role model.  However, student-teacher boundaries are crossed when their relationship turns from friendly to romantic.  If the truth gets out, Andrew will lose everything.


What I think:  ADHD is my superpower, at least, that's what I tell myself.  I am in the process of drafting four posts, reading six books, completing three class projects, and have four books on hold at the library, and this is in addition to raising three kids with special needs and acting in community theatre.  (If you are reading this and you live near Greensboro, NC, come see Shared Radiance's production of As You Like It!)

So how do I deal with so many projects at once?

I download an e-book and read it all in one sitting (again.  I've told this story before).

And I am not sorry.  Where You Are is a fantastic book--an excellent love story and a riveting page-turner.  I fell in love with both Andrew and Robert, in despite the fact that Robert was not quite 18 at the beginning of their relationship, and as a 15-year veteran teacher, I should have been horrified.

But--I remembered high school and my early twenties, dating years.  I went on dates with people who were seven to eleven years older than I.  While in high school, my 17-year-old best friend dated a 25-year-old and a 31-year-old (both before she was 18).

Another friend met her future husband when he was 32--but she was only 17, and they've been together for well over 20 years.  I also worked with a teacher who had been his future wife's band teacher.  She was his student 25 years ago, they began dating when she graduated, and they've been married well over 20 years now.

So really, is a consensual relationship between an almost-18-year-old and a 24-year-old that bad?

Definitely not bad at all.  Andrew is torn apart by guilt, however, and he and Robert start to take some stupid chances before Robert is 18, which made me cringe. And then things go very badly for Andrew (due to some obnoxious homophobic kid), and my heart broke for both Andrew and Robert.

The ending is hopeful, and that is all I am going to say to avoid mass spoilers.


This book was nominated for the 2014 Rainbow Books List.


My final takeaway (in 75 words or fewer):  If I had analyzed too much the idea of a student-teacher relationship plot, I never would have read the book.  However, I'm glad I just went for it and read it.

It is excellent, and dare I say . . . . super sexy??  Put aside any squickiness you might feel caused by a student-teacher relationship and read Where You Are.

And because I know it's going through your head . . .


Memorable quotes/passages from the book:

• "I want to scream at her.  How?  Tell me how having cancer makes you brave and noble?  But I don't" (pg 52).
• "I wasn't thinking with my d***.  I was thinking with my heart" (pg. 169).
• "If I worked anywhere else other than a public school--an engineering firm, an accounting office, an insurance company--I wouldn't have thought twice about admitting to my colleagues that I am, in fact, 100 percent queer. But public school is a world unto itself.  It's okay to be gay; you just don't talk about it.  It's an unspoken rule, but it's pretty hard and fast down here. It's one of those things you just know" (pg. 210).
• "Longest week ever.  It's hard to play student when you're this hot for teacher" (pg. 212).

Other reviews:  Brandi Breathes Books and Paddylast Inc.



This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.