It was once put to me that just because I had been a teenager several, if not many years ago, I know what it is like to be one now; today. In this case, it is a young boy Barry son of a University teacher and largely absent travelling/ working Mum, who is finding out about growing up.Their lives are turned upside down by the arrival a Sikh boy Gary and his father; lives which will be forever altered.
Although set in the 1980’s, this feels like a fresh, modern book; a rights of passage story which vividly conveys the awkwardness of the first steps out of innocent childhood into a world populated by flawed adults, sometimes ignorant, but nevertheless, trying to make their own way through it. It feels up-to date because bigotry and racial injustice is just as current now, as in the past. Some issues of youth ,such as sexual awakening, becoming aware of ones self, experimenting with danger are universal, differing only slightly by time and context.
It is likely to resonate with young people today but also remind those old enough to be parents, that adolescence is still not easy and that children may be more observant of and affected by their actions than they realise.

I was not sure what to expect, but I actually really liked it. It is a “coming of age” story told through the eyes of a 14 year old boy Barry.
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I loved Barry. I loved his take on the world and his acceptance of how things are in Ohio. There were so many scathing one liners and as the description says “bitingly intelligent asides and wry observations”. There is one part where he describes the way he feels about his mother, and it just really got to me and made me want to go hug my sons and be a better mum.
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It’s a true dysfunctional family story, with some tragedy and underlying messages thrown in. Every time I put it down I could not wait to get back to it. I don’t think it’s the type of book everyone will love, but I definitely did.

I would describe this book in a nutshell as a dark, seemingly poignant demonstration of the hate that inflicts many communities across America.

Through the exploration of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and white, middle-class discontent, this novel shines a light onto the forms of hatred and division which remain at the heart of many American communities.

Barry Nadler lives in Rutherford, Ohio, and is beginning his freshman year of high school in the 1980s. It's a time in American history fraught with divisions and rising race wars, amidst the backdrop to the Iraq war and the War on Terror to follow. Barry is very much alone and likes it that way, but meets Gurbaksh who quickly becomes his one and only friend. Gurbaksh is a Sikh and frequently gets belittled at school and within the neighbourhood due to his beliefs, which illuminates the extent of Islamophobia present in the community.

I enjoyed this book and the themes it aimed to explore - however, it only really starts to take shape at the end of the book and has no real structure to it. The chapters are remarkably short and snappy which creates a nice pace to it but without this, I fear I would have struggled to get through it.

The narrator, Barry, was likeable enough but I didn't like the way he didn't do a whole lot to challenge some of the racist rhetoric that was thrown around within his community.

This is the second book I have read that has centred on Ohio and portraying a social commentary through its main character, Ducks, Newburyport offers a similar feel but through the present day, rather than the past. I think this book is important and has a place but I was constantly waiting for something to happen and when it did, it was pretty short-lived and left more questions than answers.

The feel of it, mainly executed through its young, teenage narrator, reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye - a novel I didn't particularly enjoy. I would argue this is better as it is far more poignant and ambitious, and I was quite struck by the penultimate ending.

Fundamentally, this is a novel about multiple forms of hate and how it can divide communities.

"Hate is safe. Hate is urgent. Hate is unkind. Hate is ubiquitous. Hate singes the hated out and provides anonymity for the hater."

Aside from the rampant exploration of racism, the novel also deals with dysfunctional families and relationships. Barry's father and mother have a complex relationship which unfolds throughout the novel into disastrous consequences and I can't help but think this has some kind of effect on Barry - possibly quelling his ambition somewhat.

I enjoyed this book and appreciated what it was trying to do and think it is incredibly relevant to the current climate and I would probably recommend it to others who are fans of books that issue a type of social commentary placed within a distinct community.

A coming of age story narrated by Baruch, known as Barry, growing up in an industrial town in Ohio. Barry struggles to fit in and is bullied in school. Largely abandoned by both parents who are remote both physically and mentally, Barry drifts and ultimately the story ends in tragedy. I didn’t expect the book to take the dark turn it did. The characters are all largely dislikable even Barry although I did have some sympathy for him. Did I enjoy the book? Actually I’m not sure. But I still give it 4 *s.

Such a great book and so topical. At times it was an uncomfortable and difficult read but had the right amounts of humour. Would very much recommend.

An uncomfortable read, which is precisely the point. It opened my eyes and made me understand racism so much better - you can't ask for more in a novel.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's a bildungsroman (my favourite), and it's full of wry observations of life in rural Ohio in the '80s. It has overtones of The Great Gatsby except that for Barry, our Gatsby, doesn't much like parties. Barry is the shy friend of an outgoing Sikh called Gary for short. The reader gets to witness the racism and the change in the community through his eyes. It resonated loudly in my ears!

It is a tender and insightful coming of age story that looks at race while being exceptionally well written. I found it moving, absorbing and akin to The Short and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, albeit set in a different state. I found myself looking up maps of Ohio and the distance between cities (growing up in the UK has lead me to marvel at the size of the US). The pace draws you in, events happen at the right time to keep you hooked. It's uncomfortable to read in some parts, but perhaps it should be?

What's interesting is that The Great Gatsby enters the public domain on January 1st 2021 and this is set to be published in January 19th 2021, so if a side-by-side read is your thing or even standalone novels, you're bound to enjoy this. Full disclosure: I hated Gatsby, but still considered rereading it after this book gave me the same feels, but in a more familiar and modern setting for me. Perhaps it's recognisable to me because of my age, or that the same opinions and systemic racism still exists thirty-ish years later.

A very depressing look at growing up in central Ohio. Was not at all what I was expecting. I was very disappointed.

I love a good coming of age story, and that is what I expected when I picked up this book. I got that and so much more! It was a bonus that the time and setting both resonated with me. I was in high school in the eighties, my husband grew up here and I have called Ohio home for the last thirty years. Based on my experiences and stories I've heard about growing up here, the experiences and attitudes of the characters in this novel ring true. The narrative told through the eyes of a smart but lonely teenager is believable.
The standard themes specific to this time and place are explored, ranging from the universal angst of growing up in America, bullying, loneliness, friendship, parental relationships, trust, and young love, In addition, there are unique elements which address racism and add elements of surprise.
The action that takes place in the novel is extreme and unique, but somehow, the characters and situations that the author has created do not seem too far-fetched!
The author strikes a balance between too much and not enough description, giving the reader just enough information to understand what is going on in the character's minds without forcing a conclusion.
This book far surpassed my expectations of a simple "boy growing up in midwest in the eighties" book. I especially found the exploration of racism timely when viewed through the lens of recent history.
This was an interesting story with unique characters that I cared about. At the same time i was given food for thought on some very big issues that are still at the forefront in our current world.
#HowILearnedtoHateinOhio #NetGalley

Set against the cold reality of an 1980’s Ohio winter, How I learned to hate Ohio is a story of masculinity stretched to its extremes through the eyes of teenage narrator, Baruch.

Questions of what it means to be a man are strewn through the text in the same way that clothes are thrown around a teenagers room. While there are indeed comic moments provided by the 14 year olds stream-of-consciousness style narrative, such an intimate expression of his mind is an effortless reflection on problematic expectations and labels to which society subscribes.

While by many accounts, we are lead through this novel by a middle class/white/cis gender/male from the Midwest, there is an understanding around issues of race, poverty, sexuality and mental health, many of which are introduced by the novels’ awareness of bullying in schools.

From Baruch’s own daily harassment that leaves him scrubbing AIDS related jokes off his locker, to a tragic incident involving his best friend, narrow mindedness and bullying play a prominent role in this modern anti-bildungsroman (journey through narrator’s life involving education). One particularly important moment sees the narrator contemplating the social function of a joke, noting how they ‘provided some kind of handle on our emotions and helped make some sense of the damned carnival chaos of existence.’

I loved the quiet literary flair of this book. Though it utilises references that act as a secret handshake to the bookish crowd, and offers a profound exploration of language and ideas, at the heart of the text is something vulnerable and intimate. A secret anxiety that every human is trying to protect by taking on the world and trying to manipulate its shape to fit our needs and expectations.

While the plot is fairly simple, and the character profiles nothing necessarily new, MacLean’s characters ground this novel firmly amongst a literary cache of toxic masculinity which breeds hatred as a result. We have the privileged position of seeing someone break away from a life of unhappiness, pain and neglect, but it is not without sadness that they begin to move forward and learn from their experience. This conflicted tale reminds us that not all endings can be completely happy, and we may suffer along the way. Hate is as valid as love and equally powerful, and sometimes it is the necessary catalyst for change.

I loved this book for its honest and accessible story of such a painful experience that often goes undetected by even those closest to the epicentre. I certainly believe it to be a brilliant and essential read for the coming year.

I didn’t enjoy this book and it was a struggle for me to finish it. It is set in the 80s and although I grew up in the 80s I didn't get any sense of nostalgia - it could almost have been set in any time. I didn't like any of the characters; I wanted to like and feel something for the protagonist Barry, but I didn’t. I thought the first half of the book was better and that it was setting up the second half for something ‘more’, but there just didn’t seem to be character or plot development, it all just went further down hill. I’m not sure why this is called a ‘coming of age’ story as Barry doesn’t seem to learn anything, change or develop, he just grows up into an unhappy man. His family were horrible. The author tried to tackle difficult topics - bullying, homophobia and racism, but I didn't feel like it was particularly developed and those topics made it a depressing read. It seemed like Barry’s ‘change’ was that he moved away from Ohio because he hated it and everything there was hateful.

This book really didn't go anywhere for me. I kept expecting the characters to have some kind of revelation, but they were the same people from start to finish. Just very meh overall. Everyone in the book was unkind and selfish, and I just couldn't enjoy any of them.

This is a fantastic book, one which transported me to the 1980s (or back to the decade, I should say) - and, more specifically, to Ohio, and the town of Rutherford.

Baruch - Barry - Nader is a social outcast growing up in the small Ohio town - he's bullied, he's ostracised, and he contends with his mother, who works all over the world for the Marriott hotel chain, and his philosopher father. Life for Barry is quite lonely but the writer conveys what happens to him, through the first-person narrative, beautifully. Barry has a unique outlook on life, one which shows the reader it is possible to triumph over adversity, something that this book tends to focus on throughout. When Gurbaksh joins the school, a Sikh with a crazy, wild father, Barry's life changes, to an extent, and this leads on to parties, his mother leaving the family home, and his father giving up his professorship to work with Gurbaksh's father.

'How I Learned to Hate in Ohio' is a very thought-provoking read - it deals strongly with themes of racism and xenophobia in the 1980s, but also with family and friend relationships. Barry has a thirst for knowledge and rises above how the small-town mentality affects him in so many ways, no more so than towards the very end when an unforgettable tragedy is the final push for Barry to move on and start anew elsewhere. I am awarding this five stars - just. However, the short (often too short) chapters, and the slight tailing-off in rhythm towards this end, nearly swayed me to give four. I'm feeling kind today and the way MacLean evokes the midwest at this time in history helped me to decide.

'How I Learned to Hate in Ohio' deserves to be successful - it's a coming-of-age novel for our times, and one which is timeless in so many ways.

I love novels that take place in the '80s, probably because it was the decade I was born. "How I Learned to Hate in Ohio" is a blistering and eye-opening novel about a teenage boy, Gary, trying to survive the homophobic bullies at school, and his selfish, immature parents at home. I must admit though, the first half was much stronger than the second. The pacing began to drag a little, but I felt like the last 30 pages were really quite powerful and unsettling. I wasn't really sure how this book was going to end, which is a good thing because it wasn't predictable or cookie-cutter. This novel deals with some intense topics such as: homophobia, xenophobia, racism, hate crimes, infidelity, betrayal, depression, and low self-esteem. This book unnerved me. The author really knows how set a mood. The writing was excellent and haunting. I hardly ever read YA fiction anymore, but I'm glad I gave this novel a chance. It was dark and made me tear up a few times. A very timely and relevant story that cuts like a knife.

Thank you, Netgalley and Abrams for the digital ARC.

Release date: January 19, 2021

This impressive debut novel is all about high school angst as a result of bullying. It takes place in small town Ohio in the 1980s, when we didn't have cell phones or the Internet and had to bully people the old fashioned way, f2f. I am not a big fan of teenage angst dramas but found myself laughing about some of the characterizations and situations. I thought the book was 7/8ths well-written, up until the last few pages when it goes off the rails and I began to lose interest. Yes, the awkward boy wants girl, boy loses girl to his suave best friend, boy drops out of high school trope is a bit too familiar. But this is a fresh take, complete with adult characters that follow a similar track. Yes, there are some well-trod racial stereotypes that also have a fresh take and that I found amusing, charming and sad, often in quick succession Despite these flaws, I would recommend this book.

Oh wow! Where to begin to review this book. I loved it, even the hideous parts where I wanted to look away I was transfixed. So much of this novel rang true to me. I was in 6th grade when Barry started high school so while I get all the cultural references, I was removed from his experiences by the protection of being in junior high and still being officially a child and not a teenager.
There are so many themes coming at you in the novel, right from the first pages so that you hardly know which way to look. Barry, whose real name is Baruch after an obscure philosopher, has a strange home life. Mom works for Marriott hotels and is away 3 weeks out of 4 at one of their global locations and Dad is a philosopher, holed up in his study and taking little notice of his son.
Add to that Barry is bullied at school and worse (from personal experience) on the school bus where he has been given the nickname “yo-yo fag” Homophobia is rife in Barry’s town and many of his peers are saying incredibly cruel and bigoted things that you know can only have come from their parents saying such things.
Enter Gary, real name Gurbaksh a Sikh who also lives alone with his father and also has a less than normal relationship with him. His father is a fake who gets jobs on the strength of engineering qualifications he doesn’t possess and he moves himself and his son after only a few months in a city, on to another one. Barry has made his first friend. Now of course racism presents itself into the narrative. Gary is mistaken for a Muslim because to the average oaf in 1980’s Ohio, a turban means Muslim... or is that just the brown skin? And is it just the 1980’s? It’s terrifying when you realise that the hatred and rank stupidity in the world today and especially in the USA has been silently spreading, like a toxic ooze soaking into the collective psyche.
Things get much, much worse. Barry has his first crush that looks as if it is reciprocated, he has a strange experience with the school bully, his Mom comes home from her business trip and we the reader are caught on the crest of a darkly funny, incredibly insightful and well drawn wave as a coming of age story entwines itself to The Great Gatsby and shows just how easy it is to hate. Hate your parents, people of a different race, religion, sexuality... yourself?

I eagerly await more from this writer!

I am really impressed with this book, it's a lovely debut and so very engaging. As someone else noted there is a small error with regards to watching TV all day vs not having a TV at home, but that's easily corrected. This book is touching and timely, very well written.

I really enjoyed the pacing of this book, as well as the darker turn it takes in the latter half. It draws you in and then once you're there it holds you tight and keeps your attention. I loved the dynamic of Barry and Gary's friendship, and Gary especially is a terribly compelling figure. While this book absolutely veers into the uncomfortable, it never alienates the reader and I think that's quite an accomplishment given the difficult subject matter it takes into account.

I would certainly suggest this to anyone looking for a glimpse into a world that somehow feels both like forever ago, and tomorrow.

Many thanks to Abrams/The Overlook Press and NetGalley for this advance copy.

An angst-filled story of every town America (& other countries, deep in suburbia, I imagine!), which made me laugh out loud at points and feel really sick and weird at others. A great read 👏🏻

A timely book to read during this crisis our country is facing. It is a book about bullying - there are racial, homophobic, and religous tensions throughout this book. The book is set in the 1980's when our country was dealing with a lot of crisises. However, here we are, 30-40 years later, still dealing with the same topics.
Use this book as a tool to talk to your children about their outlooks on life and tolerance.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart MacLean is the darkly comic yet heartbreaking tale of high school freshman Baruch 'Barry' Nadler who lives in a small town in Ohio. Barry is very clever but friendless, regularly bullied in school and labelled 'Yo-yo Fag'. He becomes friends with the new boy at school, Gurbaksh, who happens to be Sikh. Set in the late 1980s, the book explores the development of the friendship between the boys, the impact it has on both their lives and the issues they face growing up in Ohio.

I really enjoyed this book. Chapters are short and punchy therefore it is a very fast read. Notwithstanding this, there are sections and lines that you want to reread and savour. The author perfectly captures the confusion felt as a teenager, how mysterious the opposite sex seem, how conflicting it is to be treated as a grown-up when still so young and the feelings of disappointment when you realise your parents are flawed human beings. Barry states that his mum tells him "these are the best years of my life. She doesn't know how much that depresses me." Every teenager has been told this and at some point every teenager has felt the same.

While the first part of the book is very witty and clever and races past, it becomes darker in the second half. Issues of homophobia, racism and xenophobia are threaded throughout. This is such an absorbing story and you find yourself hurtling towards the end, unable to put it down. If you enjoy the work of Maria Semple, you will really enjoy this! It is released in January and I would highly recommend it. Thank you to Netgalley and The Overlook Press for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

#howilearnedtohateinohio