* Meandering review ahead... or below.I read this book back when I was quite young and did not pick up on many of the arguably obvious innuendos in the text and thought it was a good book about friendship, competition, and the usual turmoils of adolescence. I also thought the book was quite boring and lagging at times and that the expositions were too nostalgic and the main characters uptight. I read it again years later for high school and still thought it was nostalgic and uptight, but then a good friend said something about slash fanfiction. At the time, I had no idea what fanfiction was or what the heck slash was supposed to mean, so the friend's comment went over my head. And then college happened. Fanfiction was no longer a thing/hobby writerly fans did on the internet to amuse other fans who had similar interests, and slash, as I learned, was a term for homoerotic writings. Though I didn't fully grasp the fanfic communities or their functions, I had a good sense of what slash fanfic was. That comment from my friend in high school came back suddenly and I had an "ahhhh, yep, pretty much" moment when I remembered this book.A Separate Peace was ahead of its time in that its content is subtle and is often seen or interpreted--or dismissed--as a turbulent friendship. But there's a certain pull between the two main leads that undeniable. It's better written than most fanfic, but it is what it is.So American high schools have been teaching this book for the last--I don't know--forty years maybe and no one noticed or said anything? That's quite amazing actually.
