I received a copy of this title to read and review for Wicked Reads 
 5 Star 
 Young adult age-range: 14+ due to violence and sexual situations. 
 Trailer Trash was like a time-warp, no doubt for all of us who are not the age of the characters. I was a small child in 1986, but I remember the dark way the world felt in that time period, as well as the products, bands, and the news of the time during that era. If those the age of the characters read this title today, it will be an enlightening experience versus how their world is now. 
 Trailer Trash shows the dynamic between those with no money and those with disposable money in rural America in 1986, and most of those rules still apply in 2016. A coming-of-age, boy from the wrong sides of the tracks romance between the trailer trash boy and the preppy cop's son. 
 I'm a huge fan of Marie Sexton- the way she creates diverse, developed characters who seem plucked straight out of reality. The stories are always slow-burn, friendships built, with the pacing on the slower side of steady. 
 The world was a different, more intolerant place in 1986. Pre-internet, with the internet drawing all parts of the world into an accessible school of knowledge, rural folks especially could only understand what was in their small vacuum. Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence, but rather a lack of education in a specific area. Mix ignorance with a lack of compassion and fear, and violence erupts. 
 Cody and Nate's journey in Warren, Wyoming in 1986 is true-to-life, heartwarming, tragic, and a swift kick in reality to show how much the world has changed. Today, we're all so worried about being offended by everything, to the point we no realize how much has changed in my lifetime of 37 years- how much the world will change in another 37 years, hopefully for the better. 
 Just in my life, I was frustrated with Cody and his mother, wasting money on vice. When my mom isn't working, she's at the bar. With nothing to do around here, I sit around and chainsmoke, then go without food because we have no money." This illogical way of thinking is a plague on the ignorant. This is true-to-life on how the cycle continues, but no less frustrating to read. 
 When the boy would go to the cupboards, only finding peanut butter and no bread, but the mother was drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette, I wanted to shake Cody. I want to go outside of my home and shake all of those in my area who do this to this day. Cody was no better until he grew near the end, realizing how ridiculous it was to waste his money on cigarettes when it could be spent on resolving his problems instead of creating more. 
 My only major issue I take with Trailer Trash was the price of products. Today, buying major brands, I still don't breach $3.00 on a jar of spaghetti sauce, and I buy Bertolli. I also shop in thrift shops because I'm a bargain huntress. In 2016, much less 1986, a coat wouldn't take months' worth of saving up all of your earnings to buy a coat. Cody couldn't afford a coat, but he was able to pay a handful of bills and the rent with most of the money saved up to buy said coat, until he had $10.00 left. Which he bought cigarettes with, while thinking he wanted to buy a pair of snow boots. In 1986, even 10 bucks would have been enough to buy a coat, or boots, and those gloves he said he couldn't afford, which would have been cheaper than one pack of cigs- the gloves. Now, I'm going by rural America prices, when in 1986 we were poorer than Trailer Trash and had a $40.00 a week limit on our grocery bill for 4 people. So 3 bucks for pasta sauce, when I don't pay that today, struck me as way off. 
 Showing the AIDS crisis while it was running rampant through the US was a refreshing thing to read. Disturbing in how it made the bias and bigotry worse than ever, but a useful part of history those who didn't live through it needed to learn. Reading the facts is different than watching beloved characters have AIDS thrown in their face as a mark against why their love was wrong. On the same token, with the ignorance and lack of information, even in the medical field, I could understand how a parent would be petrified. 
 Trailer Trash held a plethora of darker emotions, without much light. So I was thankful for a small piece of humor. Uptown gave me an endless stream of entertainment. As a rural girl, we also say I gotta go up town. But since I'm in the Northeast, it's said as two separate words, rather than one word. Or we say I'm going to town. Thanks for giving me a good chuckle and showing how areas have slight distinctions. 
 I recommend this book to fans of the MM romance genre, especially those who love slow-burn, reality-based, character-driven stories. I also recommend for young adults going through the coming out process, because it will highlight how those before them paved the way in their efforts to remove ignorance. They're not alone- they never were nor will they ever be, no matter how horrible it may feel in the moment. The world is a more tolerant place today, and we need to appreciate the time it wasn't while trying to eradicated it entirely. 
 I'd read Marie Sexton's grocery lists, so obviously I look forward to whatever she publishes next.