The Book of David by Anonymous

From Goodreads,

"His secret is his downfall. A riveting, first-person tale in the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky.
The author of this fictional diary began writing for a class assignment, but soon it became much more to him. As the star player of his high school football team, he faces a lot of pressure and expectation. Not to mention the secret that he’s harboring inside. The secret that could change everything.

And as David quickly learns, nothing stays secret forever.

His innermost thoughts and feelings are chronicled in the diary he left behind."

From Goodreads - The Book of David

This book is written in diary format by a nameless male, which I will refer to as David based on the title.  David is required to start a journal for his English class.  This book takes place in Arkansas and centers around small town football.  As the story progresses we notice that David is having more and more tendencies and instances of attraction to a fellow male classmate.  David ends up becoming a football star after a football injury puts his best friend out of the game.  David struggles to accept who he is in the small town where being gay isn't an option.

This book is written in the same format as Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky, both of which I had a lot of mixed feelings about.  I read this book and definitely enjoyed it more than the other two.  There was no drug use like in the other books similar to this.  This book seemed more "real" in my opinion and I think it is because it takes place in a small town in Arkansas, which is where I grew up and currently live.  There are so many people I know who were in the same position of David.  They were in high school and liked the opposite sex, but had to keep it a secret because of where we lived.  I read a lot of reviews of this book on Goodreads and they were very shocking to me.  People acted like teenagers aren't living in a situation where they can't come out because it isn't socially acceptable in the town they live in.  I think this book was a pretty fair representation of how people are and how they think regarding LGBT in the bible belt.

The only thing I disliked about this book is that it was very predictable.  I knew the format in which the book was going to end, and I knew that eventually all secrets would be exposed.  After a couple of these books the format just gets really monotonous and boring.  The language that was used in this was also kind of out of date as far as texting.  Most teenagers and young people text using full words and all letters.  No one uses "C U L8TR".  Instead we just type, "See you later".  I think that the author could have used full words instead of text slang.

This book would be a good read for high school kids, but I think some librarians might think twice before putting this in their library.  The only downfall was content and the fact that alcohol was openly used by minors.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.