Thoughts on From The Rooftops

Synopsis:

From the Rooftops by Grant D. Muller is about a boy named Maxwell or Max for short who is currently a college student in his senior year. Due to his family constantly moving he’s well traveled throughout the states. An art minor and sociology major he remains indecisive on his career ambitions. His counselors are not giving him viable options concerning his minor and major & he knows his business-oriented family wouldn’t approve of him choosing art over corporate jobs. He’s also made a bad habit of procrastinating and frequently skips out on classes and homework. All the while he begins dealing in the romantic territory with his best friend Tyler who begins to exhibit feelings for him despite being previously labeled as straight. Max tries hard to navigate through this as Tyler is still “DL” (slang for Downlow) and does not wish to make his “situationship” with Max known to the public including his friends. Still feeling indecisive he takes up his friends’ request to schedule an appointment for Optio a program that offers indecisive people various outcomes of their choices using Virtual Reality simulation. Upon seeing his choices and realizing despite his love for Tyler he doesn’t want to go through with the pain of having a DL partner and risk losing himself and the people he cares about. Ultimately Max and Tyler break things off and temporarily become estranged so Tyler can find himself and Max to pursue a more exclusive relationship as well as take up an art teaching job in New York.

Thoughts:

When I first started reading it didn’t really resonate with me like the others, in part, it was because I didn’t put myself in the shoes of other characters. From what I’m reading it’s a bunch of white people who smoke weed recreationally, get drunk, and party which isn’t necessarily my vibes. I can say at first I was rooting for Tyler’s relationship with Max because I once had a massive crush on 2 of my besties before but I have since accepted that it wasn’t meant to be and we’re better off friends. But as I progressed and kept reading through part 2 I saw that they tried to navigate through their relationship and it was just a bunch of confusion, pain, and weirdness, I was like wow that’s crazy. I’m mentally saying to Max, dude please move on… I don’t think it’s worth it despite what you’re telling yourself. I mean I get not wanting to be a public couple on social media I can relate but just not being able to tell your friends, do stuff in public, and go through all the pain of watching your man boo up with someone else I said to myself dude you might have to break up. As with other books like Gay Love and Other Stories; I honestly just remember the lesson to just don’t mess with DL people because you see it so many times it’s just common sense. Unintentionally they’re too toxic and indecisive; one day they want you and then the next day suddenly they’re with a girl and pretending you don’t exist. I’m glad I never experienced that like I kinda just came out ready and even though I’m not fully out to my family it’s something I’m still working on. It wasn’t until the end that’s where it all hit home for me… so near the end of the book, Tyler bails on Max’s Art Showcase claiming to have an away game but this was in fact a lie and Max later catches him sleeping around with a girl. Completely upset, he steals his keys and uses his car to drive to his Optio Appointment. During the process he’s given some insight into his choices… in one choice (I like to think probable reality)… he has Tyler, they’re in a long-lasting relationship spanning over +10 years but the problem is he’s still DL, and neglected to mention his relationship to his family. Because of that, he keeps a distance with Max in public spacing unable to even sit next to him as a plus one to a Wedding. As they elaborated more a part of me kinda just died inside and almost started crying in tears. It felt like a huge sting in my heart like when Sho blocked me off IG and disrespected me, like when Orlando said we should just be friends and started seeing someone else. It was insane because it reminded me of me. I saw myself in that same situation a person and partner I didn’t want to be. I don’t wanna get to a point where I’m in a DL relationship and risk hurting them and myself just because I’m worried about what my family might think I never want to let anyone ruin what could be a beautiful thing. Even though nowadays I just omit not lie about what I’m into it still felt real. Max even solemnly admitted that he may not even be able to have something like the wedding which hurt even more. I began feeling kind of sad because of that, a few days before my birthday too. It just made me worried about being in the same situation because I never thought of it like that before. The emotional pain it felt like I was there watching the scene play out myself. Even now I’m a little choked up about it. That had to be the saddest part I ever read in a book before. The last time I came close to crying because of some form of media was when I finished watching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for the first time. I’m feeling better though because I finished watching Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero Documentary and how he managed to set an example, an inspiration, and completely change his family’s perception of queer people which is something I hope to achieve at least among my immediate family. Getting back on topic, I guess the book showed me another lesson about life and the consequences of keeping parts of yourself locked away because who’s to say something similar didn’t happen presently, there’s probably another DL couple that’s emotionally wounded because of the homophobia and fear of being disowned by their family outweighs the love they have for their partner. It’s a lot to process… but overall the book is decent. It’s not my absolute favorite, that honor right now goes to a couple of books but it is thought-provoking and teaches you the consequences of messing with DL people. It makes you ask the question “Is it worth the risk?”. I know we tell ourselves that in relationships where people don’t have it all together but I feel like you have to weigh out the pros and cons and truly ask if this person is worth the emotional trauma, is he/she/they worth the financial struggle, is it worth losing yourself and lying to other people including the people you care about just to make them happy. I don’t know, that’s for you to decide; but me personally, I would never be on both ends of that, I genuinely desire a relationship where we’re both happy, in love helping each other grow, and potentially just showing up to family events together. I hope to have that someday. Lowkey I wish it was today but I’m nowhere near ready and I think it’s taking longer for me because I’m a special person and I’m not exactly everyone else. And not everybody vibes with Jay. The thing that pissed me off at the end was despite knowing of the bad that may come with that relationship he still wants to go through with it. Tyler, unable to bear hurting his friend any longer decides to call it quits because he doesn’t want to risk losing the love of his family. By the end of the book, Max gets a date from another openly gay man, his friendship with Tyler is on hold and he now has a job teaching at a nonprofit Afterschool Art program. Hope what I said helps you guys out in any way. Check out the book if you can so you can see what I’m talking about.

Ranking:

Overall Score: 6/10