Series: Get Out book 4
Author: Sean Kennedy
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Publication Date: April 16, 2019
Length: 196 pages
Reviewed by Sammy
Synopsis
Micah Johnson is coming back to Melbourne, and the story of him and his friends is coming to an end.
Or will it be a new beginning?
Will Deanes and Micah Johnson have a past, one that ranges from bitter enemies to best friends. There might be an undercurrent of something else, but Micah remains oblivious, and all Will can do is try to move on.
Except now Micah’s returning to Melbourne full-time, and that means they can’t avoid each other or the tensions that arise. Will is still dealing with an injury that ended his football career, while Micah’s continues to thrive. As they face highs, lows, and family tragedies, they’ll have to get to know each other all over again. Will Micah see that Will means much more to him than a friend?
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Review
What if you were secretly in love with your best friend? The
same friend who you once bullied because you couldn’t accept that you also were
gay and scared to be out like they were? So much baggage—so much guilt. Poor Will
Deanes is in love with his best friend Micah Johnson—the same rising star in
the footy world who’s now moving back
home to play with a professional team. Not only has Will been forced to leave
the sport he loves due to a freak accident which has left him permanently
scarred and in pain but now he will also have to deal with the man he loves
being so close and still unattainable. Micah may be moving home but he’s still
got a boyfriend and is seemingly oblivious to the fact that Will is in love
with him.
Author Sean Kennedy has released his fourth novel in the Get
Out series entitled, Where There’s a Will Deanes and it is just as brilliant as
the others. With the irrepressible and sometimes stupidly unaware Micah Johnson
as the love interest to the quieter, caring Will Deanes there is bound to be
some heartache and Kennedy does not let you down. He allows his characters to
grapple with the very realistic idea that two best friends can and do fall in
love; he also brings to light the idea that they may very well avoid that love
because of a fear that it will ruin their friendship. As someone who fell in
love with her best friend and never acted on it, I can tell you this theme
really does ring true. The way in which Mr. Kennedy allows for Will to grapple
with the idea that not only could he lose Micah should he admit how much he
likes him but that Will still struggles with how he bullied Micah many years
previous due to his own fear of being gay and found out was so spot on and
heart wrenching to read.
With the familiar gang of side characters which include
Declan, Simon and Emma and a host of others this novel really felt like coming
home for me. I so enjoy the world this author has created and the people he
chose to inhabit it. Sean Kennedy has created a family that will call each
other out, when necessary, but always have each other’s backs. Poor Will is
partly a case of raging hormones—I’m thinking of his crush on his Uncle’s
partner here and part martyr—never really letting go of what he did to Micah
even though everyone else, including Micah, has moved on. But rather than make
his guilt something he merely holds onto, Kennedy uses it in order to reveal
some startling and poignant truths about how closeted youth can sometimes hide
their fear of being outed behind anger and destructive behavior. Will’s speech
near the end of the novel was both heartbreaking and cleansing and everything
his character and other teens need to hear and understand if they are ever to
be free of the closet that threatens to consume them.
Where There’s a Will Deanes was a powerfully funny and emotionally
charged novel that nails the idea that we can so often be our own worst enemy
when we hide behind our fear and self-recriminations. This story give hope to
those who worry that things may never get better and reminds us all that
sometimes taking a chance brings us everything we desire.
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