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A review by benjaminperhaps
The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle by Neil Blackmore
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
absolutely devastating <3 compelling, real, immediate, painful. finally some well done historical homophobia. this one will stay with me for a while, like lavelle himself. be extremely mindful of the cws.
read this if you liked looking for alaska or other works where the narrator's intelligence cannot save them and the manic pixie dream girl trope is pushed to traumatic extremes. this book also gave me strangers on a train vibes, not in mood or plot or setting, just in the strange attraction between the two men. also reminiscent of fingersmith in the betrayal and exploration of interpersonal and structural violence. it's also strangely like every good noir story: it's got an homme fatal, the corruption at the heart of society, a narrator who can't stop reminding you that it only goes down from here, and brief glimpses of what might have been.
read this if you liked looking for alaska or other works where the narrator's intelligence cannot save them and the manic pixie dream girl trope is pushed to traumatic extremes. this book also gave me strangers on a train vibes, not in mood or plot or setting, just in the strange attraction between the two men. also reminiscent of fingersmith in the betrayal and exploration of interpersonal and structural violence. it's also strangely like every good noir story: it's got an homme fatal, the corruption at the heart of society, a narrator who can't stop reminding you that it only goes down from here, and brief glimpses of what might have been.