All the Truth I Can Stand

Gr 9 Up–Stokes reimagines the tragic death of Matthew Shepard, whose brutal murder in 1998 elevated hate crime legislation to national awareness. Seventeen-year-old Ash is struck by attraction at first sight when he sees Shane, 19, the star of the Oklahoma! production where Ash is on the tech crew. Still grieving the death of his mom, Ash has struggled to connect with people, but finds himself bonding with aspiring journalist Jenna and, with her nudging, Shane. As their relationship grows closer, Ash grapples with Shane’s apprehension for romance, his occasional disappearances, and his history of drug use. It all comes to a head when Shane is viciously beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die. The uproar is enormous, igniting not just their community, but the whole nation as they paint Shane as the perfect victim. Stokes’s writing pulls no punches as he touches on the difficulties of grieving a real person when the media is determined to smooth away their sharper edges. Ash and Jenna’s investigation takes them into the drug dealing underworld, emphasizing how drugs and the AIDS epidemic affected the gay community. The novel is very grounded in its historical moment; Stokes’s characters emphasize how connections build identity and the different ways people are vulnerable. Cast is cued white.