The Other Brother (No.3)

The Other Brother is essentially a fairly standard LGBTQ+ love story between two teens, Ryan and Cody, which is made more unique through the way in which it explores deeper thematic concepts such as family and change.

The title comes from the fact that Ryan and Cody both share two older half-sisters. However, they are not related by blood, and before the events of the book take place, know each other only vaguely. It’s the complicated family dynamics that make this book stand out, and allow an otherwise predictable story to become something more.

Ryan’s mum and Cody’s dad used to be married and had two daughters together; Kate and Mel. After they divorced, Ryan and Cody were born, but there is a great deal of enmity between Ryan’s mum and Cody’s dad, which serves as one of the main obstacles to our two protagonists.

Despite only ever seeing each other at events related to their shared half-sisters, Ryan and Cody end up staying at the beach together, in the family bach, the summer before their last year of high school. It’s the summer Ryan teaches Cody to surf and Cody teaches Ryan to play guitar. It’s the summer when they become friends. And then... more than friends.

This whole ‘falling-in-love-tension-and-longing-glances’ makes up about the first half of the book. But even once Ryan and Cody get together, they are forced to keep their relationship secret, because of the difficulties that it would present in their already messy family lives.

The strength of this book lies largely in Ryan’s character, from whose perspective the story is told. He is an inherent joker, a clown, and (more often than not) a little bit of an idiot. I really enjoyed this, because it made the book ridiculously amusing –I found myself laughing out loud at certain lines, particularly this one;

‘Cody grimaces; “Yeah I’m sure if I go home and announce I’m gay and I’m dating his ex-wife’s son, my dad’s first reaction will be to celebrate.”

“At least the fact that it’s me might distract them from the gay part,” I say.’

This is a really interesting line because while it is funny, it’s also quite sad. Ryan has spent his whole life being compared to Cody and one of the central conflicts in the book is his own belief, and the beliefs of those around him, that he doesn't take anything seriously. “It’s like, sometimes you get locked into these positions, and it’s hard to change people’s minds.”

When you’ve spent so much time using humour as a defence mechanism, it’s difficult to express yourself more genuinely, and even when you do, people are more likely to be sceptical. This idea; that we all have intense feelings, even if we don’t express them often or in the way that people expect, is a powerful theme in the book.

Another important concept that Jax Calder explores is familial relationships, and how complicated they can get. What I really appreciated about this was that we got to see how nuanced these relationships can be, and it also does show that nothing is black and white. While Ryan dislikes Cody’s dad, Frank, (and Frank feels the same way about Ryan) they get to a point where they can respect each other. There were no villains in The Other Brother – only humans.

Part of me does wish that the other relationships in the book were more developed. However, this is often a problem that I have with any book with a strong romantic focus. Ryan’s friends play a role in the story, but as obvious secondary characters. I also wanted to learn more about his relationship with his mum and see how they interacted with each other, just because I felt like it would add to the story and enrich it further.

I should also probably point out that there is some explicit sexual content so I would only recommend it for older teens, perhaps 17+.

Overall, The Other Brother is quite a difficult book to critique, because, while it is by no means a Pulitzer Prize winner, it is not supposed to be, and it also does not need to be. It was precisely what I expected; a tender, compelling, funny love story that also investigates some broader themes. It wasn’t exceptional but I do really think that it’s good it exists, because it’s the kind of book that perhaps not a lot of people will read, but those who do are likely to find something, big or small, that they can relate to. Finding yourself in a book can sometimes be really quite challenging – The Other Brother is one that makes doing so if not easy, then at least, less difficult.

- Indigo is 17 and lives in Whāngarei.