stained by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

I read this book because I am updating our GLBTQ bibliography and other lists have mentioned this title.  I suppose that we can assume that the Catholic Priest, who is abusing a teen, is gay. But I don't think it belongs on my above mentioned list. This is a story about child sexual abuse.  I would put it on a list with Lyga's Boy Toy.  The teen never had a chance to determine his sexuality. 

Jocelyn has always been friends with her neighbor Gabe, even when he has seemed to push her away.  The friendship has never been as close or predictable as she wanted.  She didn't understand Gabe but never gave up on him.  Occasionally, he would unexpectedly share a deeper part of himself with her like when he took her to the hideaway in the woods.  New boy Benny comes to town and Jocelyn soon become a couple, both of them smart and on the fringes of popularity.  Gabe remains elusive til he simply disappears. 

The priest is at the center of the search for Gabe.  More than once kids have told Jocelyn to ask him whats up with Gabe.  Jocelyn wants more desperately than most to find her friend.  When she does ask Father Warren about Gabe, his intrusive questioning creeps her out.  When Gabe reveals himself in his hiding place, to Jocelyn, and only to Jocelyn, she tells him he absolutely must come home, the priest may be approaching Benny now.  He must be stopped.  The story, set in the 70's rings tragically true.  Perhaps it needs to be told as a fiction story, I don't know.  JDW