Lose you to find me by Erik J. Brown

Tommy, a waiter at Sunset Estates retirement community, realises that the new staff-member Gabe is his grade 5 summer camp crush. However Gabe appears not to recognise or remember him. To add to his stress, while training Gabe, Tommy has to prove to the floor manager Natalie that he deserves her recommendation for the elite culinary school that he wants to attend.

This is a story about finding your own path in life; are Tommy’s attempts to rekindle a previous crush a good idea or even a possibility? Should he continue to try to live his father’s dreams? How is he going to manage coming out to his mother?  

Lose you to find me is a story that explores the daily difficulties and insecurities that young people face, as they navigate friendships, relationships and career and life choices; these being amplified if they are gay. Specific to the American setting, it was also sobering to see the characters worry about college debt, whether the state they lived in allowed abortions, and the pressures caused by college admission choices. On a lighter note, readers get an insider’s behind-the-scenes view of kitchen and restaurant staffing where much of the story is set, a lot of random facts about cooking and films, and some sound advice and amusing banter between older gay residents and young staff.

The cheating, drinking, casual gay hook-ups and online revenge that also feature in this overall light-hearted coming-of-age novel are integral to these flawed but endearing characters. In Lose you to find me Brown has created a large cast of minor characters embracing a variety of cultural, sexual and socio-economic backgrounds, who in the main, offer friendship, advice and support to each other.

Mention of suicide attempt, abortion, gay hookups, underage drinking, infidelity, finger amputation, online revenge.

Themes: LGBTQI+, Cooking, Relationships, Coming out.

Margaret Crohn