A bookbinder herself, Savran Kelly is also a fine writer, and her debut novel is smooth and involving. Readers of queer fiction will find much to admire here.
... richly imagined debut ... Kelly populates the novel with a roundly developed cast... and while the mystery of why Gertrude’s letter was bound into the book will keep the reader turning pages, it’s Dawn’s evolution as an artist and a person that gives the novel its beating heart. Readers will find lots to love.
The narrative suffers from slow pacing, a protagonist who is spectacularly self-absorbed and kind of a jerk... and from the fact that Gertrude’s story is so much more interesting than Dawn’s. It is, nevertheless, a salient reminder that there was a time when the word nonbinary was virtually unknown. An intriguing but uneven debut.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
