One Good Man: A Gay Marine Corps Novel

This was tedious. I bought this book with the promise of an angsty military drama. What I got was not much really. There is a lot of talk about weapons and tactics. An occasional bit about DADT, there are a lot of acronyms so if that isn’t your thing have our phone ready to search some of them. There wasn’t much else really. Nothing too in-depth about the main character. No real interaction with the other characters beyond gym workouts. Which were probably, by far the most entertaining thing about this book and they weren’t even that great. Beyond that, there wasn’t anything really going on.I kept turning pages thinking that some real interaction if only with his fellow soldiers would happen. it didn’t materialise. Even when the main characters met it didn’t get too involved then and it didn’t grow into something after that either. In the 60 percent or so of this novel that I slugged painfully through, I can count on one hand how many times the two mains met. The other stuff read was all military jargon and noise vaguely relating to the main characters homosexuality and distant relationship with his dad but not digging into it in a way I can recall. Nothing tangible just talk/narration.What it comes down to is there was no real plot. So much tactical information, so much about weapons and how the military works, not enough about the main character to really get into his mind. His responses to the few confrontations he had, especially the only one he had with the love interest, were juvenile and cliche at best. And the writing was very stilted. Sometimes I reread a few sentences because a wrong word was used. Like the author was going for something and used an almost right word or a word that sounded good. This, of course, changed the meaning of the sentence thus losing the idea the sentence was going for. I googled a word once just to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind cause it jolted me out of the story that much.I went in expecting a military action drama with the conflict and angst that goes along with having to hide oneself in a world that isn’t safe to be out and that fact being compiled with falling for someone also living in the same unsafe environment. It didn’t deliver. Without the book actually going down any sort of identifiable plotline, ultimately I had to give up. More than half a book of mostly information dropping about how things work in the military and the rare gym or cantine/food-hall/mess-hall scene left me skipping so many pages to get to the point and hours wasted for the story to still not reach it. It felt like I was reading a high school teens fantasy version of how a book like this should read instead of an adult version of what it’s really like to live in this world.I guess I was waiting for more of how soldiers talk to each other; more of doing tactical missions and less talk of how they are done; more of the emotional stress that comes with being out there in danger fighting for a cause and the lengths you go through to avoid dealing with that psychological stress. Whether that be working out in the gym or making light, inappropriate to outsiders but very appropriate to insiders, jokes to mask the weight of it all. And lastly how with all of this also have to deal with our sexuality and how a serious interest in someone is threatening to break all these emotional walls you’ve built up.Beyond the jargon and acronyms, what was is this life really like? It was almost like this story tried to be a real depiction of military life without actually delving into the dark gritty disgusting parts of it, and it didn’t leave enough space for the romantic angle to take off because it filled itself with an overload of information. However, there was way more than enough pages to drop some jargon, sprinkle in a dash of combat, add some real interaction with the soldiers and main character and the love interest, and more. This was not a short book by far even with the number of pages I read and still the story hadn’t actually moved anywhere.I couldn’t finish this and I tried, but there wasn’t enough plot direction to keep me in it. Each page felt like more of the same and after a while. The writing style felt a bit juvenile instead of reading like an adult had written it. Ultimately I had to accept that finishing this book was not going to happen.

I loved the story, it was both revealing and saddening to know that service men and women were forced to hide who they were just because of who they loved, but I would recommend this book to anyone so that they might understand what DADT meant back then to the LGBT community

I couldn't put it down loved how it flowed even in the sad part. wish it was longer though but in the end worth the read

I spent a great deal of time in uniforms. From Boy Scouts (Eagle at 14), National Guard and then Navy. Fell into Corpsman school. Spent a while at Camp Pendleton. 13 Area Dispensary. Learned to love Marines. (Physical and mental). Went back to San Diego for fourteen months of Medical Lab and Blood Bank. To Vietnam on the hospital ship REPOSE. You see why I liked your work., "One Good Man". My only complaint was not enough sex scenes

Corporal Alexander Indigo is stationed in Iraq on his second tour. As a gay man serving during the "don't ask, don't tell" period, he remains closeted to keep his job. He meets Taylor Redding, an Arabic-speaking American translator and romantic sparks fly. Derek Pace tells the story in first person; so the terse dialogue and lack of description fit, but leave the novel as a bare bones story. The supporting characters weren't distinct for me; so when things happened, I had to try to remember who they were. The romantic ending was satisfying. I understand the Kindle edition has a glossary, which would have been helpful with all the acronyms if it were included with the paperback. Enjoy!

Cute store line was cute, but always felt like you were missing something

One Good Marine is an interesting book and I enjoyed reading it. I also served (in the Army) before DADT, when getting found out could lead to a lockup at Leavenworth or quite possibly, death at the hands of the guys in the unit. (One of the soldiers at my Kaserne, who they said was gay, got tossed out a fourth story window trapped in his metal locker. He didn’t survive the landing.) I also write LGBT themed books with a military flair, in praise of the silent LGBT patriots of yesteryear, and as an example to those who follow us. Looking forward to your next effort, Derek!

This book was very good and I was truly transported to the place with the narrator. Feeling and sensing all the same things. All of the jargon and technical scenes of the writing were good and flowed well if you read the glossary. I wish the writer could have given us another epilogue to the end of this story it was truly a enjoyment to read.Thank you for your service!!!

Very good novel. I read it off in a day.

I know this said it was a military/marine corps book and clearly the book shows that and I guess if you were in or still in the marine corps then maybe this novel is for you but I felt the there was no real story or the actual story came right at the end of the book and some of the more interesting stuff that could have been elaborated was in like the last couple of pages of the book. I would definitely not recommend

Enjoyed and recommend. Would like to read more from this author.