I’ve been really slacking on reviews. Well, today, I’m going to try and knock out some of the ones I promised but failed to deliver. First up, The Zero Knot by K.Z. Snow. I picked this book up from the NetGalley thinking it was a young adult M/M novel. 
Before my reception, the blurb from Ms. Snow’s website:
The Domino Club — a teenage version of a secret society, formed by four small-town friends to explore their bisexuality. Two years into his membership, Jess Bonner has had enough. He isn’t bi, he’s gay, but he’s just been afraid to admit it. He’s also an 18-year-old bound for college and bent on making a break from pretense.
When Dylan “Mig” Finch admits he’s also gay and fed up with the club, he and Jess give in to a mutual attraction that’s been building for years. Mig isn’t college-bound, but he’s one of the finest people Jess has ever known.
As the young men struggle to define their relationship and determine their priorities, forces they can’t seem to control keep tripping them up: sexual appetite, personal insecurities, fear of discovery, and more.
They need clarity. They need courage. Just as they’re on the verge of finding both, an act of vindictive jealousy sends one of them to jail. All their hard-won victories are in danger of falling to dust.
The only way to save what they have is to recognize and declare it for what it is . . . and fight for its integrity.
I’ve been dying to try a young adult M/M romance. I’ve read a few m/m adult romances and have had a hard time getting into them. I’d hope adding the young adult element would pull me in where other novels had not. What I found was although this is a coming-of-age novel, it is NOT a young adult novel. Yes, the protagonists are young (18), but the sexual scenes are very adult. While the level of sex in the novel surprised me, it didn’t detract from the work at all. In fact, I loved the realism, which really helped make it into a discovery, coming-of-age novel. Well done, Ms. Snow!
When I first read the prologue, I was apprehensive about this piece. The prologue didn’t grab me at all, and after reading the entire book, I wish it’d been omitted. If nothing else, it would have been nice for me to the type of person to skip prologues. After the first chapter though, the book had me hooked.
One of the passages I loved from the Zero Knot was:
“You weren’t a Freebird who’d soon be earthbound. You were an alien, and you’d never be anything else.”
It’s such a beautiful truth. A big part of adolescence and even life in general is about finding yourself, trying to fit in. But what happens when you figure out you’ll never fit in the way society expects you to? No matter the outside image you portray, you’ll always be you inside… and that you is different from the established norm.
That sums up The Zero Knot in the nutshell — young men, despite living outside the social norm, coming to terms with who they are. Throughout it all, Ms. Snow splashed enough humor to keep me laughing when I wanted to cry about the injustice of an unfair world.
Who I’d recommend The Zero Knot to? That’s a tough one. I want to say everyone because the story line was so touching and provided such understanding. However, the graphic nature of some sex scenes makes this work suitable for adults. Parents should definitely read this one through before they consider passing it along to their teen.
Bottom line: I loved it. I’ll definitely be looking for more works by K.Z. Snow.
The Zero Knot is Available at: Barnes & Nobles, The Book Depository
