The long run

His girlfriend dumping him is the final straw for Black Mexican track star Sebastian Villeda--Bash the Flash--who's grieving the death of his mother while navigating tense relationships with his absent father and emotionally distant stepfather. He isolates himself from his friends and sets his sights on getting into Rutgers, the college his mother dreamed he'd one day attend. Hoping to end his self-imposed isolation, he begrudgingly shows up at a house party that's quickly busted. There, he meets shot-putter classmate Sandro Miceli, who is Italian American and who recently broke his foot after falling off his roof while attempting to find some peace in his bustling household. After the boys share a drunken kiss, Bash, who never thought he was queer, looks for opportunities to hang out with Sandro. Their burgeoning romance hits a rough patch when Bash accidentally reveals one of Sandro's secrets to his parents while attending dinner at their house. The duo's alternating perspectives are depicted via realistically crass teen narratives that showcase complexly rendered characters and fraught encounters; Sandro's erratic temper and Bash's dawning self-awareness regarding his sexuality present refreshingly credible images of the messy lives and desires of contemporary teens. Ages 14--up. Agent: Carlisle Webber, Fuse Literary. (Feb.)

A coming-of-age romance between two high school athletes in New Jersey. Sebastian Villeda, known as Bash the Flash, and Sandro Miceli, called the Italian Yeti, know of each other from school; they move in different circles even if they're both athletes. Black and Mexican Bash is a track captain, and Italian American Sandro is a field captain, but they couldn't be more different--at least in the ways they're perceived by most people. In fact, Bash has lost his mother, and since he started exploring the Spanish language, he has a word for how he feels: cansado, or tired, weary, and miserable. His White stepfather works nights, and the two don't spend much time together. Sandro, on the other hand, has a large family, but amid the crowded, noisy chaos of eight family members sharing a single bathroom, his overworked parents don't really talk to him. As the two seniors come together, they realize they have more in common than they'd thought, and an unlikely friendship starts turning into something more. Although the boys' backgrounds and upbringings are fresh and intriguing, the chapters that alternate between their first-person perspectives are derailed by the stream-of-consciousness narration and characterization that lacks depth. Their explicitly described sexual explorations and awakenings notwithstanding, their relationship is lacking in genuine chemistry, making the slow prose drag. Unsatisfying. (Fiction. 15-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.