Without being mawkish or false, the author has delved into the joy and sorrow concomitant with love and growth [in The Man Without a Face]…. The author handles the homosexual experience with taste and discretion; the act of love between Justin and Charles is a necessary emotional catharsis for the boy within the context of his story, and is developed with perception and restraint. Justin McLeod is presented as neither a damned soul nor a fallen angel, but as a human being…. Over and over again, the reader is made aware of what maturity entails: "You can be free from everything but the consequences of what you do."… A highly moral book, powerfully and sensitively written; a book that never loses sight of the humor and pain inherent in the human condition. (pp. 375-76)