Jerkbait

By: Mia Siegert

Narrated by: Raviv Ullman

Even though they're identical, Tristan isn't close to his twin Robbie at all - until Robbie tries to kill himself. Forced to share a room to prevent Robbie from hurting himself, the brothers begin to feel the weight of each other's lives, on the ice and off. Tristan starts seeing his twin not as a hockey star whose shadow Tristan can't escape, but a struggling gay teen terrified about coming out in the professional sports world. Robbie's future in the NHL is plagued by anxiety and the mounting pressure from their dad, coach, and scouts, while Tristan desperately fights to create his own future, not as a hockey player, but a musical theatre performer. As their season progresses and friends turn out to be enemies, Robbie finds solace in an online stranger known only as "Jimmy2416". Between keeping Robbie's secret and saving him from taking his life, Tristan is given the final call: sacrifice his dream for a brother he barely knows, or pursue his own path. How far is Robbie willing to go - and more importantly, how far is Tristan willing to go to help him?

©2016 Mia Siegert (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

A heavy story that needs to be told.

This is the story of twins, so very different, yet inextricably bonded. They suffer the worst tolls of gender / orientation uncertainty, bitter heterosexism and homophobia, religious bigotry, narcissistic parenting and abduction and sexual assault. In the end, it is their bond that destroys the barriers and drags each other, their peers and their parents to claim their individual and collective truths and acceptance. Not at all a typical romance, yet a true story of love.

Twin intuition suppressed ….

What a tremendous and powerful story … a rendition of twin reality that is rarely captured or understood. Such a poignant portrayal of complex family & community dynamics.

An emotional sleeper of a story!

I expected a decent story, with light-hearted themes; A simple but adequate trajectory of a tale. But, alas, it pulled me in and brought tears to my eyes, time and again.

The danger of secrets.

I liked the book very much as an exercise in secrets and assumptions. Both boys have everyone assume things about them and those assumptions effect their lives and futures. I am very happy about the conclusion of the Heather and Tristan story because in most books there is a unrealistic make up scene that leaves the reader with a WTF moment. The danger of faceless online predators is very much highlighted and I believe is much more common than most people think.

Tigger Warning

I have to emit this book triggered me a bit. From the parents of the twins; to the best friend being a down right bad person. I have to tell you that at every turn the brother was crying for help, then in the epilogue he gets it. It left a bitter sweet taste in my mouth. Kind of like unsweetened dark chocolate. Oh and there's a enlude to a rape that may have happened in one of the last chapters, so be forewarned. All in all it was worth the read, because of the character development plus the whole hockey thing was fun to read about.

Great Story!

What a well written story. Intersting characters and character development. I read most of it in one evening because I couldn't put it down.

Mostly gripping

Very gripping story with slightly unusual characters, unfortunately the last 20% of the book is very weird, like psychic powers weird.

Amazing

This book had a way with making me feel so much empathy for the twins, I was worried, anxious, scared, and just overall hooked with what the boys were going through. I couldn’t stop listening. Talk about a book that juggles with your emotions. Great listen.

Left with a slight sense of hope

I had higher hopes going into this book. unfortunately for me it fell a little flat. I was expecting more emotion in a book that surrounds a set of twins where one attempted suicide. Unfortunately I didn't end up with all that much emotion regarding that at all. the only emotion I felt from this book was anger towards the parents (like legitimately they disgust me) and a slight sense of hope at the end that Robbie was going to be alright in the long run.

LGBTQ adjacent

this isn't an LGBTQ book, it's about suicide and a straight brother dealing with his gay suicidal brother, the main character regularly talks about the girl he likes and stereotypes the gay characters, missed the mark,