received this book via Goodreads' Don't Buy My Love program in exchange for an honest review. 
 4.5 for this contemporary YA gay story with elements of romance. 
 I don't count this book as a romance, though there is a lot of romantic elements, because the objective of a romance is different from this book's objectives. This is a survivor story, one which is raw, and gripping and will rip your freaking heart through your knotted throat. It will leave you feeling emotionally battered, and sad, and enriched for spending your time in the lives of Kevin and Rick. 
 These two meet at school after Rick's family has relocated to Salt Lake City following the death of Rick's older brother, the second death Rick blames on himself. Rick is the pariah in his family, barely tolerated by his father and stepmother, though his half-sister Emma adores him. Rick is depressed, and friendless, when Kevin selects him to join his group. 
 Kevin lives a double life; he turns tricks for booze and drugs and is very active in the gay clubbing community, but he's 17 and has created the perfect facade for his father's sadistic abuse. He sees Rick as a challenge, and enjoys manipulating people to escape his own silent misery. 
 In the course of getting Rick to be his newest groupie, Kevin learns that Rick's father has just begun physically abusing him. They share this secret unwillingly, but when Rick finds out about Kevin's own abuse, Kevin can't deal. And, his true attraction for Rick seeps out in the aftermath. 
 Kevin's attempts to seal Rick's fate by pursuing him sexually, but neither boy expects to experience such an emotional engagement. 
 Expect graphic violence against teens and explicit drug and alcohol use. Do not expect graphic sex, because this is an emotions book, with all sex (even hetero) happening just off the page. 
 Expect to be emotionally wrecked at the end, which I will not spoil. I will say that it is as in character with the dark themes of this book as all the rest of the 200+ pages were. And, while I'm a sucker for an HEA, or even an HFN, ending, this story never promised a happy ending. I don't even know if I could have read one here and not felt it was a bit trite. (I still would have LIKED it, but that's the Pollyanna in me.) 
 Kevin's is right, nobody wants to believe a monster lives right next door. The writing is taut and the characters intense. I hated Rick and Kevin's dads, and I even wanted to knock Rick's stepmother out. There was too little love here, but sometimes that's exactly true in this world.