News horrible, let's talk books

[rymenhild]

Everything is terrible so I'll tell you about the book I read this morning.

I preordered The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian, #2 in her Page and Sommers mystery series. For reasons having to do with Evil Empire shenanigans, I was able to download the book on Thursday although its listed release date is this upcoming Tuesday.

Anyway, The Missing Page is a totally delightful queer subversion of the cozy mystery genre. In post-WWII Britain, country doctor James Sommers is called down to Cornwall for his estranged uncle's funeral. His variously terrible family members gather there, where they are asked to solve the mystery of a cousin lost two decades before. With the help of Leo Page, spy and also James's lover of two months, James sets out to discover what happened to cousin Rose.

So far, so standard. But Sebastian takes this pile of tropes and turns them all sideways. The romance and mystery plots come together in a story about how, when the family you start with is awful, the family you build can be there instead. Highly recommended. (And talk to me once you read it, because everything I really want to say here is a spoiler!)

Meanwhile, what should I read next?

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I really like the way found-family narratives have become more visible lately--both fiction and random blogs/news--though the reasons for having them are not new and have nothing to do with the pandemic. Glad to know of this story.

[rymenhild]

Yes, absolutely. Just going through my recently read books: Band Sinister by KJ Charles has a hellfire club that's actually a found family in disguise. Cat Sebastian's Cabot novellas include the queer members of one toxic family who construct their own family unit separate from the larger and toxic unit. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston has a set of roommates and neighbors in a shitty apartment building in Brooklyn who turn into a family over the course of the book.

I don't think it's coincidental that the great majority of characters in every one of the books I just listed is some variety of queer.

[thistleingrey]

some variety of queer

Of course--though it sounds from the variety and complexity as though there's been some improvement since the 1990s, when it seemed as though the only way queer folks were "allowed" to have social links is via found family as veiled threat for promiscuity, with the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. Uh, that came out more negatively than I'd expected: I am glad that it seems there's been some improvement!

[rymenhild]

I supervised a really fun independent study two years ago on LGBT literature. We started with The Well of Loneliness and ended with Angels in America. I know what narrative you mean, and the books I'm reading from the last five years are making very different choices. One Last Stop is particularly interesting in that regard because it's explicitly reading 1960s-70s queer history against the 2010s as part of the plot, and looking at what has and hasn't changed.

[thistleingrey]

Ah cool--I will add to the (lately very slow) tbr list! Thanks.

[bronze_ribbons]

I'm glad to hear it lives up to the anticipation. I'm hoping to read it a week from now. (I saw some of the drama Thursday night but was in the thick of other things and didn't seize my copy during that weird window.)

Someone mentioned to me that Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle was sparked by The Grey King, so it's on my stack from the library, but I've been whaling through KJC's Magpie world instead in case I get assigned Esther & Dan Gold in an upcoming exchange.

Tangentially, I just read "For the Long Pattern" and enjoyed it.

[rymenhild]

The Raven Cycle really did not work for me, but I know many people who enjoyed it.

Thank you! Wow, that was a long time ago. I don't know how much sense the story makes outside its Milliways Bar context, but I appreciate your reading!

[philomytha]

That sounds like a lot of fun, I'll have a look for it.

[ladybird97]

Oh, yay! I've just finished The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, which is the first of Cat Sebastian's books that I've read, and I really liked it. So this is both a recommendation to you, and thanks to you for the rec for another of Sebastian's books!

Have you read Sword Dance, by AJ Demas? It's the first in a trilogy - also a queer romance/intrigue/mystery, set in an alternate ancient Mediterranean world. It's got some wonderful found family later in the series and a sensitive treatment of trauma; and because it's a trilogy where the couple gets together at the end of the first book, it has a thoughtful exploration of what happens after the Happily Ever After when the couple actually has to work out how to fit their different lives together.

[rymenhild]

Yes, I have read all the AJ Demas books and am sad there aren't more. Something Human is my favorite.

[ladybird97]

Oh! How did I not know about the others outside the trilogy? I'm going to go get those RIGHT NOW! Thank you!

[mothwing]

Thanks for the rec! I can really do with something light at the moment.