Hi everyone! Reposting this as I'm looking for new beta readers for my first novel, American Leather. It's a coming-of-age story told from the perspective of an 18yo gay hustler in 1990s Los Angeles named Angel. After getting kicked out of his parents' house, he develops a romance with a closeted skater named Keanu. While this romance plays a major role in the narrative, the plot isn't solely centered on it: Angel deals with addiction and having to rely on sex work to survive - while simultaneously having to hide it from the love interest and his best friend June.
For the development of my characters and setting, I was mostly inspired by the aesthetics and dialogues from Gregg Araki movies. If you enjoy films like Nowhere, Mysterious Skin or Thirteen, shows like Skins or Euphoria, or are just interested in the setting, I believe you have a good chance of becoming quickly invested in my story and its characters!
While this is a long book (3 parts, each ranging from 12 to 30 chapters), most of it (especially Part I, which takes up half of the book) isn't all that dense and is quite heavy in dialogue. The writing is also pretty straightforward. If you like stories with a lot of introspection and dialogue that read more like a diary, it will (hopefully) feel like a quick read to you!
Trigger warnings for descriptions of sex work, self-harm, depression, drug use, addiction, SA and trauma associated to loss. Nothing in the story is meant to be gratuitous or exploitative, but it does get quite depressing at times.
I'm open to swapping manuscripts. Thank you!