THEGAYUK

Category: Books

  • BOOK REVIEW | The Wolf in His Arms (Runes Trilogy Book 2) by Adrian Lilly

    ★★★ | The Wolf in His Arms (Runes Trilogy Book 2) by Adrian Lilly

    The first book is The Wolf at His Door, which I reviewed here

    Alec & Jared the gay, werewolf lovers are back. With Lucy, Alec’s sister, they set out to reveal the truth about what happened to them by decoding documents they found in a underground lab and to find their pack. But they are not the only ones looking for their pack. The Wolfs are hunting members their pack and offering them a choice: join them or they’ll kill them and their family.

    Along the way, Alec & Jared are at it like rabbits while Lucy is coming to terms with her new inner wolf. They track-down other members of their pack including: Maxwell another gay werewolf and his best friend Haley, and Nadia and her mother Helena.

    Alec, Jared & Lucy discover the Wolfs have much bigger ambitions, than just recruiting their pack. The Wolfs are bent on world domination and already have a plan set into action. Alec, Jared & Lucy decide they must stop them. They learn about the elusive Tutelars, protectors of humans. Will the Tutelars recognise that Alec, Lucy and Co are trying to help or just seem them as another pack of werewolfs?

    The story builds to a fantastic ending as the Wolfs set their plan into full motion, sending human society into panic and disarray. Can Alex, Jared and Co stop them or is it too late? This is where the book ends and it leaves the reader wanting more.

    The Wolf in His Arms is written in third person with a good show and tell balance. It keeps the reader hooked throughout with it’s fast-paced, ever-twisting storyline. The Wolf in His Arms is a brilliant, superb and reasonably told story.

    At times, a lack of editing did let The Wolf in His Arms down. It was repetitive on occasion, overly used description of weather – which wasn’t always consistent and used dialogue tags that distracted from the dialogue.

    I recommend reading The Wolf at His Door before The Wolf in His Arms. The Wolf in His Arms gives an adequate backstory, but doesn’t give the reader the same emotional connection as The Wolf at His Door does. I can’t wait to read the final book in the trilogy.

    The Wolf in His Arms is available in ebook format only and its short chapters mean that it is perfect to read on bus, train or tube to work. The Wolf in His Arms is available to buy on Amazon.

  • BOOK REVIEW | The Road To London by Adriano Bulla

    The future of (gay) literature.

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  • REVIEW | Polari Literary Salon, The Southbank Centre

    ★★★★ | Polari Literary Salon, The Southbank Centre

    If you’ve not been to Paul Burston’s Polari Literary Salon, you must. I insist.

    I had my Polari Literary Salon cherry popped last night and it was stunning. An incredible, humbling and glorious array of literary talent showed their prowess on stage including: Carl Stanley, Nicolas Collins, Karen McLeod, Angela Clerkin and Maureen Duffy.

    A special mention for Karen McLeod, whose ‘humourless lesbian’ character Barbara Brownshirt had the room in tears with her odes to Judi Dench and cruelty free shoes.

    Also Angela Clerkin’s immensely enjoyable reading about her stage wetting Irish dancing nemesis provided light and shade against the often angst but thought-provoking poetic readings from Nicolas Collins, while Carl Stanley opened the evening with an intimate reading from his book about growing up gay in early 80s.

    An abundance of readings of poetry and excerpts from the author’s books, the evening provided a spotlight on some of the best queer writing, expertly hosted by the ever gorgeous and critically acclaimed Paul Burston.

    The next Polari Literary Salon evening at the Southbank Centre is on the 28th April and will star:
    Philip Hensher, Sophie Ward, Rebecca Chance, LaJohn Joseph and Kiki Archer.

  • Book Review | The Wolf At His Door (Runes Trilogy Book 1) by Adrian Lilly

    ★★★★ | The Wolf At His Door (Runes Trilogy Book 1) by Adrian Lilly

    Alec is an out gay man and his twin brother Adam is straight; both are College Students and live at home with their parents – Ilene & Jason. Their older sister Lucy lives with her partner Rene nearby. Also close is their grandmother – Geraldine, a woman who has psychic ‘vibrations’ when something bad is going to happen.

    With Geraldine’s vibrations getting worse, Alec’s friends Sam & Celeste introduce him to Jared. Then Sam & Celeste are brutally murdered.

    The Prologue is overly dramatic, too descriptive and far too long. But once past that you discover Lilly‘s wonderfully engaging writers voice and his third person writing style that switches between characters perspectives. His writers voice and storytelling makes The Wolf at His Door an easy read that becomes highly addictive as the reader reads on.

    The story is told in three parts. In part one Lilly introduces the characters, Alec’s friend’s are brutally murdered in the night at a cabin in the woods and people are going missing. Part two deals with the aftermath of the murders, the Police start their murder investigation, green-eyed evil Darius targets Alec and the investigation of the missing people is on-going.

    In the third and final part Alec & Co. start their own investigation as to what’s going on. This leads to an absolutely epic ending and sets out the direction for the 2nd book. The love interest for Alec adds to the story. Overall the storyline was outstandingly captivating, oozes brilliance and is well paced.

    The description was perfectly measured throughout; although it did have a few Americanism’s that Lilly could have minimised or removed for more universal appeal. There were a few minor errors in dialogue formatting. But neither the Americanism’s or the errors in the dialogue formatting interrupted the flow of the storyline.

    Throughout the story there is a good mix of scenes: slow ones that evoke an emotional response, investigation ones that ignite the mind with questions and face-paced action scenes that grip the reader.

    By the end of The Wolf at His Door the reader has many answered questions; but some are left unanswered – which is what will make the trilogy enthralling.

    The Wolf at His Door (The Runes Trilogy) by Adrian Lilly is essentially a werewolf, gay, mystery novel. An enjoyable read that makes the reader impatient for the release of the 2nd book in the trilogy.

    The book is only available in eformat; but this makes it perfect to read on the bus, train or tube to work. The chapters are short meaning you could read several on the way to work. However you will find yourself reading on the way home as well – desperate to find out what happens next.

  • BOOK REVIEW | Henry Darger, Throw Away Boy

    ★★★ | Henry Darger, Throw Away Boy

    Henry Darger (1904-1973) was an Chicago-based artist, who was completely unknown in his lifetime. He created pieces of art that depicted children. In some of the art children were innocently enjoying life and in others they were being horrifically tortured. Darger also completed two fantasy manuscripts entitled The Realms and Crazy House. Many critics dubbed Darger as a mentally unstable individual who may have thought about harming children.

    But as Jim Elledge uncovers in Henry Darger, Throw Away Boy that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Elledge has spent a decade researching and writing this book which gives a comprehensive insight to the life of Darger. It is well researched, which is indicated by the extensive bibliography and notes sections.

    The book starts by describing the poverty, dangerous street life and Darger’s lack of supportive loving parents. Darger’s mother died in childbirth and his father was an alcoholic. It is suspected that Darger was sexually abused on a number of occasions throughout his childhood. This commonplace abuse, did make uncomfortable reading at times. His behaviour, even as a young child, was feral which is understandable given the emotional trauma he experienced. His bad behaviour led to his father putting him in a religious mission and later an asylum institution.

    Darger escaped the institution and became a Janitor in a hospital. He began to create his art and write his manuscripts, as a way to fictionalise his traumatic childhood experiences. In his manuscripts he wrote about a number of secret societies, all that have one mission: to protect children. He fell in love with a man (Whillie) and continued to work tirelessly on his art over the decades that followed. But after some early criticism, he didn’t feel able to share his work with the world. It wasn’t until after his death that his landlord discovered the work.

    Essentially Elledge tells the story of a gay man filled with fear and shame because of societies attitudes towards children, child abuse and gay people. Glossy pages show some of Darger’s work, but more would have been welcome.

    Elledge brings Darger’s story to life through his engaging writing style. If you’re into gay art – in all its forms, you’ll love Henry Darger, Throw Away Boy. Available from Amazon

  • BOOK REVIEW | Checkmate by A. L. Olson

    ★★★★ | Checkmate by A. L. Olson

    Bored university student/cheesy diner waitress Ambrosia’s mundane and ordinary life takes a turn for the bizarre when her boss starts buying chess sets for customers to play, and two of the chess pieces appear to come to life and begin offering Ambrosia unsolicited life coaching.

    When she begins taking the advice of the chess pieces, her life begins to get on the right track until she is thrust into a suddenly bizarre world of hallucinations, seemingly crazy psychologists, and A.I. robots, Ambrosia finds herself the unlikely heroine, almost alone in her quest to save the world.

    This first novel by Olson is quirky yet relatable. Ambrosia is an interesting character, who you want to love, even while she complains a lot about the ‘current generation’ (hipsters with iPhones etc.). The plot moves quickly through familiar territory, interwoven with original ideas. The fact that a lot of the plot twists, and there are many, are inspired by, or borrowed from other sci-fi stories: there’s certainly elements of The Matrix, Philip K. Dick, and many zombie movies; makes the book instantly familiar, without being predictable and boring. Just when you have the idea that you know where you’re going, Olson throws in another twist and the story rockets off in a different direction. It is a great first novel, thought I think it could benefit from a few notes before being an excellent novel, it is a fun read, and well worth the time to get invested in the characters.

    Written to help raise funds to cover the cost of much needed surgery, resulting from hormone treatments, Olson steers clear of and heavy-handed ‘Queering’ of the characters, and the potential same-sex attraction in the story is included naturally and doesn’t feel shoe-horned in. It also doesn’t deal with any societal issues faced by the characters because of their sexuality, real or perceived, and it thus avoids coming off as a ‘preachy’ story. Olson stays true to the story line, and the issues being dealt with there, and thankfully refrains from getting bogged down in queer social issues or politics. This is a refreshing story where the protagonist happens to have a same-sex attraction that is not central to the story, rather than being the only plot point.

  • BOOK REVIEW | Denial Deceit Discovery

    ★★★★★ | Denial Deceit Discovery

    A brutally honest book based on a real persons struggle to come to terms with his sexuality through his open and emotional journey.

    Denial, Deceit, Discovery is a superb first novel by J.James. A truly amazing story of Jack, a young catholic man, and his struggle coming to terms with his sexuality and finding the strength and courage to be true to himself regardless of the consequences.

    At first glance I found the first few chapters quite graphic as the author details his sexual explorations, in fact Amazon have it listed under ‘erotica’. Whilst there are some pretty explicit scenes of gay sex, after reading the whole book, I realised that apart from being erotic, it was instead a brutally truthful account of a lot of rather intense soul-searching.

    The book is split into three sections of his journey, characterising the three chapters Denial, Deceit and Discovery. Based on true events, that are essentially autobiographical, this reads in the style of a personal memoir. The writing is so extremely honest that you often wonder which parts were from the author’s imagination and which were from his own life.

    Anyone will be able to relate to parts of the story regardless of sexuality and even if the book in its entirety doesn’t completely resonate with you, it provides plenty of food for thought. Highly recommended, compelling and easy to read, the content will make you blush, laugh and cry. After completing the book I wanted to carry on reading what happened next of this brave man’s journey on his pursuit for happiness.

  • BOOK REVIEW | How Are You Going To Get Out Of That One, Alan Ambrose, by David Moreton

    Ever seen a book review in 10 words or less? No? See Below?

    Like Carry On? Like farce? Love this!

    There! Never let it be said I didn’t rise to a challenge. But, to flesh it out a little (oooh, errr, Missus), this rib achingly funny book from David Moreton is like a gay romp through all those bawdy British comedies I grew up on. Saucy comments via Carry On – check. Rude jokes via On The Buses – check. Double entendres via Nearest & Dearest – check.

    Right up my street if you’ll forgive me! This book is a gem of a read, taking the reader on a journey as we follow our hero, Alan, through his growing pains, coming out, staying in, cottaging, trading favours for gifts, you name it – it reads like the kind of book Rupert Everett would like to write, but doesn’t.

    David has a talent for writing farce, creating situations that at once make you laugh out loud (not great on a Manchester bus at night) and also inwardly cringe (hoping to god it never happens to you). He describes sex in all its seedy reality, warts an all – as it were. These scenes are all too graphic and farcical, but feel as if they are based on real situations…..cottaging, not as its shown in glossy porn clips, but in all its piss stenched reality, gritty and dirty…..but always with a glint in the eye and a smirk on the chops!

    We read of Alan’s adventures as he moves from man to man, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes shoved/pushed/dumped, from continent to continent, villa to bedsit, Hollywood to Hove. And I feel better for it! We read as he gets involved in scrapes, schemes and porn…..

    At over 3,000 pages, this isn’t a light read – and I thank god its on e-reader, cant imagine the weight of it as a physical book but would imagine it’d give you a pretty good workout carrying it around!!

    You end up feeling like Alan is someone you want to know, want in your life, want to go get a drink with, never want to meet at a urinal, and always check your wallet is still there before he leaves…..fun, frank and farcical…..

    If you are looking for that book to read whilst warming your toes during the long winter nights….do yourself a favour. Ignore those sour-puss, just-sucked-a-lemon, up-yer-bum serious novels that always populate the “high brow” review pages and get this one. It’ll tickle your funny bone, it’ll make you smile, it’ll make you think, it’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on for under a fiver!

    Get your copy here

  • BOOK REVIEW: Framed On Titan, By Stevie Gonzalez

    Ok, I openly admit it. I’m a sci-fi fan and also partial to the odd bit of erotic fiction so combining the two into one story is my ideal read!

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  • BOOK REVIEW | The Heart & The Hand by Dean Harkness

    I know, I know, I can be flippant, I can be irreverent, and I can be rude – but for this review, I’m parking all those trait and reviewing some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever read.

    This book is simple, no blurb, no foreplay, no preamble, its straight into the work with some of the simplest and most intelligent words I’ve read

    Take the poem, “Five Little Words”, which does exactly what it says, it plays with the placement of the five little words: This is a love poem……it changes the meaning, plays with its audience, forces you to ask questions, who is its audience?

    “Cemetery” in nine lines sums up loss and death, how we who are left to visit graves feel, how the place makes us feel, what it means to loose someone or something and place them in the ground.

    Dean choose words carefully, as if they were rationed, it feels very Haiku, very Japanese but with very western subjects.

    Take “People Strutting” – it evokes Saturday Night Fever, Tony strutting in his too tight jeans, winkle picker shoes and unbuttoned shirt, off to pull some stranger at the disco….all this in only five lines.
    “Film of You” made me cry… a story of love ended, images gone, a story of film not files, sending things via snail mail to get physical images back……….it speaks to me and my generation of how we felt, how love felt back in the day.

    Dean is something of a renaissance man, a true artist not just with words, but as an illustrator, with images too. if you can, follow him on twitter. I do like that there are no images here, the words paint a picture clear enough, no images needed in this book. Dean does a clever thing and lets his words speak volumes

    And to turn things on their heads, to lighten the moods, we shift on to “Brits in Summer” which reads like an episode of Benidorm on ITV. It sums up us Brits at our basic levels, lobster red, label whores, everything display….

    “Media Sex” reads like an indictment of our age, how everything is lived in the glare of publicity, nothing is sacred anymore, nothing is kept private, we all clammer for publicity, adoration, and are willing to sell the most private details for a column inch in the next days paper or someone else’s blog…….

    “Homeless Man kicked to Death” could read as a headline in any local paper, but instead makes you think about how easily we accept these things. How we are immune to what it must be like to be on the streets, what these people face each and every night. The threats, the drunks, the risks…..

    Dean is a poet that makes you think, and not always about the good stuff, not always about lost love or feelings, but also about the underbelly of society, the people and things you pass by every day, the news stories you may not want to see. And always with an eye on the word count, never using two where one will do, wary of overly decorative narrative….
    Take my advice, read this book, you wont be disappointed. The price belies the content – less than £1 for pages of enlightenment.

    BUY FROM AMAZON

  • Pulp Fiction – The Gay Sleaze Novels of the 50’s and 60’s

    Back in the 50’s and 60’s, there was an abundance of pulp fiction – trashy novels which were cheap and infamous for their lurid and exploitative stories and their sensational cover art. The artwork was designed solely to tempt the reader into buying the book and actively encouraged the potential buyer to quite literally judge a book by its cover.

    What was noticeable was the amount of pulp fiction which was either aimed at or about gay men and women. Without having the opportunity to read the books themselves, it not easy to accurately see how the lifestyle of gay men and women were portrayed. However, the covers illustrate and suggest a mixture of attitudes towards the gay lifestyle, ranging from titles that suggest how unfulfilling a gay lifestyle is (“His Sex, His Problem”) or suggesting that gay sex was a sin (“Satan Was A Lesbian”). But there are also a number of books which suggest a much happier and sexually indulgent side of life. You only have to look at the adoring glances of the muscular characters on the covers and the wry smiles on their faces to see that they are thoroughly enjoying themselves.

    These books provide us with an interesting insight into the past, suggesting what attitudes people may have held towards gay men and women at the time and what perceptions people may have had of the gay community. They also show what common fantasies and stereotypes existed at that time and give us a clear picture of what people used to use for titillation in the days long before the internet provided such readily available stimulation. Oh, and they are also fun and a bit camp!

    This article was inspired by http://www.gayontherange.com/index.html and http://www.strangesisters.com/ and the pictures of the covers below are credited to them. So sit back and have a flick through these pulp fiction classics.