Latitude

This book isn't super deep but I related to the main characters VERY HARD. Some of it seems very absurdist — I still don't really know how Broadway or theater tied into this At All?? — but it has a very good heart. I listened to the musical it was based on afterwards — I was not previously familiar — and it sounds completely disjointed and nonsensical.

This is a really slow read, which I liked; it felt very 1995 to me (caveat that I do not remember that era of time). I'm not sure if it is because it's a period piece, but the main character is kind of misogynistic and the male characters are mostly assholes. I wasn't super impressed by it. Two stars.

This is like a coffee table book but for some reason it was turned into an audiobook. I imagine this would be incredible to have on your coffee table to flip through sometimes. As an audiobook, it's kind of a mess. Honestly, I picked this book up because I thought it was an adaption of the podcast What's Your Sign? Which is the only astrology podcast I listen to and which I once gave a three-star review on Facebook to because it was “too gendered”. (It gets less gendered!) I thought that reading and reviewing this audiobook would be my redemption arc! But it is not put out by the double Tauruses of What's Your Sign, it is put out by Sanctuary Astrology, which is an app with the ugliest icon I've ever seen. Anyhow, after reading this book, I know way too much about astrology, and I know more about houses but have retained none of the information about how houses relate to my chart. Three stars. No redemption arc. (Fantastic audiobook narrator. 5 stars, but I've enjoyed her work more on novels.)

This feels like high fantasy in a contemporary setting, or like high fantasy dumped into a contemporary setting. A really interesting thing in this book is that only males are vampires! There's also kind of a makeshift team and maybe someday it could be a found family, which I am all about. I read the audio version of this, and I thought the narrator was great! Four stars.

There's actually a point where Ellen is like “yeah I did this secret ritual and I attached this ghost to you in a weird magical way but I kind of fucked it up” and you know what! Maybe just don't do rituals on your best friends without telling them about it! I don't know, just a suggestion!

Read the rest of my review on my blog, at geographreads.com.

The other POV in this book belongs to Roy Straightley, who is the Latin teacher and haunted by the fact that his best friend was a child abuser and also possibly a murderer. He also tells a gay student that “he doesn't care as long as it doesn't interfere with his Latin” and also when a trans student tries to come out to him he has a heart and/or panic attack (it is unclear) and is like “pronouns are confusing, I'm very old!”, which certainly is Some Kind of Social Commentary. Get good, Roy Straightley.

(Read the rest of my review at: https://geographreads.wordpress.com/2021/12/28/do-you-think-it-will-interfere-with-your-latin-a-narrow-door-audiobook-review/)

I reviewed this book and more over on my blog, geographreads!

I received an e-ARC of this book at no cost to me.

This book reads like an empowering research paper, which is kind of weird! It includes a lot of anecdotes from other queer people and how they navigate Being Queer, which is a Therapy Technique I certainly recognize and one that I very much benefit from, especially in this book. Another thing that really worked for me was including lists throughout the book, which were easy to take solace from; these include a list of reflections/affirmations, a list of ways to challenge negative feelings about your body, a list of tips from Essie's own experience of understanding and accepting their identity, and a list of self-care tips. Unfortunately, one of the self-care tips is “prioritize your health”, which feels incredibly privileged and a very British thing to say; as an American, I absolutely cannot do that and also expect to have anything else left over, in terms of money or energy. 

Besides this one awful fact about the stark differences between our healthcare systems, this book addresses a lot of The Things plaguing the queer community today: mentioning commodified pride vs. actual pride; coming out over and over and over again, how when you're on two or more spectrums, “queer” can be easier; how part of trans healthcare is that you will be forced into a restrictive diet and exercise regimen if you are over an arbitrary weight limit in order to qualify for gender affirming surgery. It asks the question: “What does the legacy of colonialism have to do with how queer bodies are treated?” (So much, as it turns out.) 

“There is nothing wrong with having lots of sex.
There is nothing wrong with having no sex.
It is your body, and therefore, your rules.
Queer sex is still sex.”

Something that I really resonated with was the note on poverty, and the sentence “The stress of being on the edge of broke still lives within my bones”, acknowledging the abject poverty that many queer people live in. It really really reminded me of Scott Benson's writing on The Fear - “My friends and I talk about The Fear. The Fear is the awareness of living in precarity, that state of instability caused by not having security of finances, job, healthcare, etc. You get The Fear through contact — you were evicted, you lost your job, you went a long time with nothing, you lost everything, you barely scraped by.” (Read the full article here:). 

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book. I'm glad that other queer people will be able to read it soon. Four stars.