Girls, This Just MAY Be The Book Of The Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               I could simply not move, darlings, while devouring Caitlin Wahrer's debut novel, "The Damage."  I came to it expecting a male-centric "Promising Young Woman," which might have been interesting enough.  But it turned out to be much more. And nothing is as it seems.

                                                 The premise is simple.  In a podunk Maine town, even there is gay action.  Nick Hall, a 22-year-old college junior, meets "Josh" one night in a not quite gay bar--remember, it is Maine, so what choices are there?--and they hit it off.  They head to where businessman "Josh" is staying--a sleazy motel--and have action. Except Nick maintains he was blacked out  by a blow  to the back of  the head, only to awaken next morning, naked, clothes strewn, and bleeding  both on his face, and out his rectum.  He cries "rape;" "Josh" cries consensual.

                                                    What  follows is a  roller  coaster  rides of twists and turns that even  I could not  hazard, though one of my suspicions turns out to be correct.  I will not tell  you anymore, dolls, because I don't wish to rob anyone of the visceral pleasure this novel gave me.  Or how it will leave readers thinking, at  the end.

                                                        The title's meaning is questionable.  Who,  if anyone, does it refer to?

                                                        Don't  miss  this one, hons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!