Malloy, Brian.  The Year of Ice.  

Kevin Doyle is struggling--particularly withhis attraction for a  straight classmate—amidst constant pressure to date girls and understand his complication family.

His mother, who died when her car plunged from a bridge into an icy river, left Kevin living alone with his father, Pat, a moody alcoholic who is continually pursued by single women in town. When Kevin’s aunt—his mother’s fiery Irish sister—informs his in a moment of anger that she believes his mother may have committed suicide, Kevin’s world becomes even more confusing. He is forced to confront the reality that his father was having an affair and planning to leave, and the possibility that his mother, in despair, may in fact have killed herself.

In the meantime, he is dating a girl in his class in order to hide his homosexuality, and her constant pressure for physicality strains his acting ability, but he knows he has to escape his small town before he can live freely as a gay man.  An encounter and friendship with an older man helps him accept himself as he is and wait out the time until he can leave.

When his father announces his intention to marry Carol, the woman he was planning to leave Kevin’s mother for, Kevin strikes out against Carol, but eventually forms an alliance with Carol’s niece, and the two try to make sense of their elders’ romance. 

This well-written, often funny, and frequently heartbreaking story will appeal to adult and teenage readers alike, and might be a good book group selection, as the characters’ choices and the complexity of emotions and relationships offers much to discuss.