Rating: 
Summary: Heart and gut wrenching, but it's CRITICAL you read it
Review: You'll think I'm nuts, but tears are welling up in my eyes and I'm trembling even as I write this review, thinking of the emotion and feelings that The Soccer Field Is Empty filled me with. It is without reservation the most powerful book of gay fiction I've ever read and its story has changed me forever.The novel opens with a flashback and the first lines from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "In fair Verona where we lay our scene..." This sets the entire tone for what turns out to be a modern-day interpretation of that tragedy-but for two boys in midwestern Verona, Indiana and not the ancient Italian town. It sets that specter of tragic inevitability in the reader's mind. The story is incredibly moving and incredibly complex. We view the lives of these two boys-Mark and Taylor-through their own eyes in the form of a sort of ping-pong, back and forth between their journal entries. From their shy beginnings, through their happiness, their sorrow, their desperation and finally, their end. Roeder has weaved it all together into a constantly moving, roller-coaster ride of a story. I continue to marvel at how my emotions were torn back and forth, back and forth until I was almost left a wreck. I've never before read ANYTHING that at one point had me sobbing uncontrollably, inconsolably for over 20 minutes. That may sound alarming-and believe me, it was at the time-but I wouldn't trade the experience or this story for ANYTHING. The very fact that Mark Roeder could DO this to me is nothing less than miraculous and a testament to his prowess and God-given talent as a storyteller. I'm almost PLEADING with you to read this book. In the end, the story serves as an incredible cautionary tale of what might happen when those "ancient prejudices" lead to tragedy. This book would be of so much value to anyone who can read it with an open heart and spirit; who would then take a chance at thinking about what LOVE really and truly is. One could only hope and pray that homophobes, gay bashers and even simply the ignorant or mis-informed could see the truth of what love can mean and what evil could come from their own thoughts and actions (or inactions)-and at the very least, just leave gay boys alone. God, if only that could happen and if only the story of this novel would never have to be mirrored in real life... The Soccer Field is Empty is the kick-off of Roeder's Gay Youth Chronicles saga (it's actually an expanded and reworked edition of his earlier novel, Ancient Prejudice, Break to New Mutiny which only tells the story from one side). If you read this book first, you're on the right track. I think part of my emotional turmoil in reading this novel was the fact that I'd actually read Roeder's third novel, A Better Place, first-and it contained several "spoilers" which made Soccer Field very tough indeed. Please, PLEASE continue reading his books-they are amazing, and each has a different but important or even simply entertaining story to tell. I promise you that you'll not be disappointed. (See my review of A Better Place and others as I post them.) The complete Gay Youth Chronicles series of six volumes (The Soccer Field is Empty, Someone is Watching, A Better Place, Someone is Killing the Gay Boys of Verona, Keeper of Secrets, and Do You Know That I Love You?) has provided the most enjoyable fictional world for me of anything I've ever read-the eternal saga of Verona, Indiana. I would wholeheartedly suggest you purchase and read ALL of them, and in the above order. To the Author: Thank you for the lives of Mark and Tay. May their story be one that lives in my heart and the heart of your readers forever. May it be a story that changes the world...
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