There’s a rocky road of book rant ahead.
I try to read a good cross-section of things in my genre, because I think an educated writer should be familiar with the state of the marketplace. Not, in my case, because I want to try to chase it; I write what I write because I need to write, in a style that is my own. Attempting to follow anyone else’s style would be demoralizing, not to mention probably a complete fail.
Point being, I do try to keep up with what’s well-reviewed and/or winning awards. Sometimes I read things and think ‘well yeah no wonder that won.’ Other times I think ‘OMFG really?’
Those cases are … well, writing is lonely and anxious work at the best of times. When you read something and think ‘this is actively harmful to the people it’s supposed to celebrate’ and that thing has won a major award, it’s like, why bother.
Thus today’s book rant. Last night I read a 2020 Lambda Award winner, which I’m not going to name because I’m not trolling the author. I just have things to say that are too big to go in my writing journal. Anyone who’s read the book and also reads this will probably deduce what it is, because there are components I can’t leave out, but c’est la vie.
Setting: modern-day New York City. Sub-genre: M/M contemporary paranormal romance. Dominant trope: gay for you/bi-awakening. Submerged & possibly unconscious trope: kill your gays.
Yes, and this is a gay romance. First rule of romance: don’t kill your main characters (MCs). Neither of the modern-day MCs dies, but … well, read on.
MC1 is a young gay man, aspiring writer who works in a vintage clothing store, living not in genteel poverty but cockroach-infested-shoebox-city-apartment kind of poverty, who inherits a brownstone from a great-great-aunt he didn’t know he had because he grew up in the foster-care system with no known history. The catch: he has to live in it for a full year. The extra catch: the house is haunted.
MC2 lives next door to the brownstone, in the basement apartment of his parents’ house which he maintains, while working as a high-rise electrician. The family is close and supportive. Dude has money and security, in other words, a dichotomy which is not adequately addressed. MC2 also identifies as straight.
Understory: a hundred years ago, two boys grew up in these neighboring houses and fell in love. But it was a hundred years ago; one of them (unhappily) married a woman, the other went off to WWI where he was killed. That one’s sister is the ghost.
The ghost wants MC1 and MC2 to experience her brother’s tragic love story so that he can find his lost love in the mists of time and move on. To do that she forces them both to see and hear chunks of history. She also makes it impossible for anyone else to get close to them, through poltergeist-type activity that hurts the third parties and results in MC1 being called a freak.
Points of unhappiness:
First: MC1 has been used and abused all his life. To have another major character in what is ostensibly a romance actively hurting and coercing him, throughout the book - it literally doesn’t stop until they see/hear/tell the whole story, which is at THE END - and for him to be forced by circumstances to submit to it and ultimately embrace it - the guy develops an attachment to the ghost! I can’t even!! - is not okay with me. Stockholm Syndrome: it’s a thing. A thing I don’t like.
Second: MC2 is being pushed into a relationship with MC1 whether he likes it or not, which means the coercion is on both sides. At first he’s very resistant, except MC1 is so cute and appealing and why can’t MC2 stop wanting to kiss him. I’m not a fan of ‘oh I can’t possibly be attracted to you OMG let me shove my hand down your pants’ in general. People KNOW. They know when they aren’t really wanted or when someone is conflicted. MC1 is being used and abused, again, by the person the story wants him to fall in love with. This is at least addressed on the page, but not in a way that gave me hope for their future.
Third: There is literally one other non-straight character in the book, a Wise Older Co-worker (bisexual) who counsels MC2 about his sexual identity crisis. The other non-straight characters are in MC1’s miserable past, described as people who, you guessed it, used and abused him.
Fourth: Not a fan of the omniscient storytelling ghost. There are several ways in which a writer could have brought the century-old understory to light without ever employing a ghost. I can’t help thinking the author had the idea based on a certain old movie with a similar title and thought, how do I make this fit the M/M romance market. I also think the historical understory is what must have caught the awards program’s fancy, because it’s the only part that has depth and character development.
Fifth: MC1 having been described as an aspiring writer ('“halfheartedly attempting to write the great American novel”), handed this rich mine of material, never even thinks ‘I should write this story.’ He doesn’t ever sit down with a notebook and pen. If you’re not going to have your fictional writer behave like a writer, give him a different aspiration. Throughout the book, his creativity is expressed through his clothes, and that’s fine. I have no issue with people who love historical clothing. I have an issue with incomplete characterizations.
Sixth: speaking of characterizations, MC2 has a complete personality transplant about halfway through. He goes from obtuse, unobservant, inarticulate, and self-deceiving to making heartfelt speeches about why his brand new feelings are awesome and the truth and a sign of enlightenment about gay rights.
Finally, the marketing and some of the reviews of this book (I only read a few) seem to think it’s light-hearted, maybe even a comedy. I’m here to tell you, it’s fucking NOT.
I gave the book a three-star rating because it’s competently written, but as I re-think it … should’ve been lower. There are obviously things about this book that a lot of people liked. But you can trust me on one thing: MC1 is one of the most ill-treated romance heroes I’ve ever seen, and he deserved better.