Sock It To Me, Santa! Novel

Novel: Sock It To Me, Santa!

Author: Madison Parker

Genres: Coming Out, Young Adult, Romance

Released: 2012

Part of Book Series: Standalone (Short Story)

Summary: Ryan is assigned to Jamie Peterson for his class’s secret gift exchange. If word gets out that he has to make a handcrafted gift for flamboyant and openly gay Jamie, Ryan will be the laughing stock of the school. It’s a good thing no self-respecting boy would be caught dead in a craft store, because otherwise he’d be at risk of being spotted when his mom drags him to her weekly craft workshops. He hopes Jamie will appreciate all the trouble he’s going to for this assignment. Finding the perfect gift is gonna be tricky. Jamie deserves something good, though, after all the crap he has to put up with at school. At least, Ryan tells himself that’s the reason he’s putting so much thought into the gift. It couldn’t be that he has feelings for Jamie, could it?

Post’s Author Opinion:
Note: This is a personal opinion, it does not reflect YaoiOtaku’s official position towards the novel.

Reading through the summary, one would already know how the story goes. You get two types of characters; one, the stereotypical gay kid who is bullied in school, two, the closeted gay kid who ends up falling for him. This short story reminds me quite a lot of Diary of A Teenage Taxidermist but a less creepy version.

I almost decided to not read this book because I wasn’t in the right mood for Christmas clichés, but boy, I was glad I invested the very little time it took to finish reading this sweet story. Even though I mentioned that it was predictable, I loved the characters. The story was told in Ryan’s point of view, a closeted non-football playing athlete of the school that was afraid of social suicide if he ever said a word to Jamie. The supporting characters were kind of amazing too, except for Ryan’s bigoted friend and some bullies that weren’t worth mentioning further.

We didn’t get much interaction between Ryan and Jamie, but Ryan expressed his interest in so many ways. It started from him thinking about what to get Jamie for the Secret Santa gifts exchange, saving him from bullies and finally realizing that being true to oneself was more important than worrying about people’s perception. It may not have a strong plot, but the messages were pure and simple complementing a coming of age or coming out genre.

I would really recommend this book for a light read. It doesn’t take long to finish, the story is cute and the characters are loveable. You can’t help but adore boys making handmade presents to impress someone they’re in love with.

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