Makes 'fag' jokes and references to tease his Older Brother (OB). Spends a lot of time thinking.īest Friend (BF) Characterization (both book and movie): 20ish. Struggles with his sexuality and the changes in his life. Main Character (MC) Characterization (both book and movie): 20ish. Plot (both book and movie): boy, who has taken on the care of a young child, falls in love with his best friend's older brother, breaks up with his girlfriend, starts a relationship with his best friend's older brother, breaks up with his best friend's older brother, makes up with his best friend's older brother, and the two decide to live together and raise the child. I'm sure there are more, but I got bored with it afer a while.
I know the saying goes that 'there is no plot that has not already been written,' but this book passes beyond 'similar' and goes into 'copied' territory, or at least 80% copied anyway.Ī couple of people said they saw no similarities or only superficial similarities between the movie Shelter and Mr. Klune is still offering his take on stories that he didn't think ended well, because this book is almost a clone of the movie "Shelter" with only a few minor changes. In the author's bio at the end of this book, the author says his first story was a "sweeping epic version of the video game Super Metroid-he didn‟t think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it."
Klune left out the hero's artistic talent and how the hero and older brother spend time together surfing, but the character personalities, the events, and almost exact circumstances in the movie "Shelter" are exactly the same in this book.
These are minor differences compared to the overwhelming parallels. In the movie, the sister never came back so there was no custody question.Īlso in the book, his best friend and ex-girlfriend end up together, which did not happen in the movie. Some of the scenes in the book where he remembers his mother drinking with a man at the kitchen table are exactly like the scenes in the movie where his sister is drunk and drinking with a man at the kitchen table.
In the movie, the sister doesn't leave until later, but she is absent a lot and the full care of the child falls on the hero most of the time. The only differences are that in the movie, his sister leaves her son (his young nephew) in his care, while in the book, his mother leaves his younger brother in his care, (the sister is homphobic in the movie and the mother is homophobic in the book, and both leave with a man who says "the kid can't come"). The older brother eventually convinces the hero to move in with him and let him help raise the child in both the book and movie. He and the older brother get together, and then the hero breaks up with him. His girlfriend suspects his feelings for the older brother and they break up for good. Throughout the movie, the hero struggles with his feelings for his best friend's older brother, hiding his feelings from others and denying it to himself. The locations are similar - the best friend's house is on a beach, for instance, and the older brother had moved to southern California and become a 'big shot'. In the movie and this book, his on-and-off girlfriend since grade school works at the same grocery store with him - the book even mentions a bench and table outside the front entrance of the store which is in a scene in the movie.Īll the characters have the same personalities in both the movie and the book. The same tension and awareness between the older brother and the hero are there in the book as was in the movie. The scene where the best friend arrives at his house to find the older brother there is nearly the same. His best friend's older brother comes home from southern California after a bad breakup in both the movie and the book. I watched the movie again after reading this book and there is no mistake that complete scenes, situations, etc. Both the movie and this book even start with the same scene - he's driving to pick up his wealthy best friend and take him somewhere. I saw the movie a couple of years ago and this book has the same characters, same story development, same guy-gives-up-scholarship-to-take-care-of-small-child plot. However, I can't view it as an original novel, since it is a complete rip-off of the gay themed movie "Shelter" (2007 - ).
Let me start by saying the author has excellent writing skills, and that the book was well written.