What do readers think of Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin? Write your own review.

Abigail Tarttelin tackles with compassion the unlikely tale of an intersex individual who identifies as a male, but could be either. We are introduced to Max, the high school Golden Boy who hides a terrible secret. This book would appeal to anyone interested in questions of sexuality and acceptance, but told from multiple viewpoints as each character has his or her own section.

Told from different perspectives, this book is golden in many ways. Max is a popular high school boy. He is captain of his football league, girls are drawn to him, he gets good grades, and he is kind even to his annoying little brother. But Max has a secret, he is intersex. He is exactly half and half. The story goes deeply into his and his family's feelings about this. His family and him haven't spoken about this situation at all and this fact creates most of the dramatic situation here. Even though I learned a lot about people who are intersex, I learned a lot more about communication within families. How …more having a secret, even though you are trying to protect someone, will blow up in your face at the most inopportune times. I highly recommend this book. It is easy to read and not forgettable. (less)

The novel, alternating between the voices of the 6 main characters, brings more depth to the story, enabling us to this view this story of choices and controls quite intimately. That the author is only 25 and can write about such sensitive matter so maturely led me to re-read the novel--and I loved it even more the second time.
This would make an excellent book club discussion, bearing in mind the suitability of its sensitive nature. As a nurse and a mother, I say KUDOS to Abigail Tarttelin! It's a rare book that comes along that stirs me as much as GOLDEN BOY did. I look forward to her next book.

The younger, not yet so golden brother of the protagonist Max says "You may be different like me, Max, but the good news is that we're living in a world of different people." A wonderfully prescient view from a 10 year old that should be a part of the thinking of most all of us living in the present age. Why do we cling to "normal" and fear the "other", the different? This novel certainly has raised those questions for me while reading about what is now called a middlesex person. We have so narrowly defined sex and gender that any minute deviation drives some people to condemnation and yet we live in an age …more where fertility drugs, surrogate birthers, sperm donors, in vitro fertilisation, ultra sound, sexual identification and other interventions are considered normal. These interventions are accepted as the results might not be.
I loved reading this novel seeing how accepting one's own very different being growing up in a family conflicted by it could bring sense and acceptance by those who could appreciate the sliding scale of different. (less)

I love novels, biographies, and memoirs that delve into a family's inner workings, and I've read many of them over the years. This one, however, is the first I've ever seen that deals with the issue of intersexed individuals. Max, the adolescent at the center of the story, is intersexed and also is the family and community's "Golden Boy". The author, Abigail Tarttelin, was new to me (indeed, this is only her second book), but I was most impressed by her treatment of the sexuality issues in the book. It is apparent she has done her homework and it would not surprise me to find that she has some personal knowledge …more of how these issues affect a family.

The book is written in the voices of each family member and other characters in the plot, a style I often enjoy. The characters seem well-developed and their reactions seem extremely realistic and understandable to me, given their personalities and roles as described by the author.

The book was easy to read and provided much new insight and food for thought into the issue of intersexuality. I'd highly recommend it! (less)

This is the story of Max, born hermaphrodite or intersex, boy and girl. The story is told by Max, his mother, father, little brother, girlfriend and doctor: the struggles they each face in their own way and how they deal with them.
Most importantly, this is the story of an exceptional human being, Max.
What would you do if born boy and girl, if you were the mother or father, brother or sister, friends of an intersex person?
If there is one thing we can all learn from this book, is whatever your gender we all are human beings.

"Golden Boy" is one of the best novels I've read in years. When I read the plot summary I immediately thought of Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex," but I discovered a much more intimate story told through the voices and perspective of the main characters. Max is a character that you just can't help not to love, root and cry for him. I highly recommend this novel.

I am a big fan of coming-of-age stories, and this book does a wonderful job of combining the coming of age of not only the main character, but also of the rest of his family. The characters are well fleshed out, and the situations, although they have been dealt with many times before by other novels, are new and interesting in this unusual context. Most of the characters are sympathetic, and because the story is told from the viewpoints of all of those characters, the reader gets a complete picture of the conflict that goes on in each person's mind. "Golden Boy" is a great read. I look forward to more from this author.