Dancing and sadness went together, like lemon on fish, or butter on bread, dancing enhanced the flavour of sadness.
Sun Dog
by Monique Roffey
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
About: Something strange is happening to August. Of course, he's always been a bit strange: blood-orange hair, awkwardly built, excessively shy. His childhood, too, wasn't exactly normal. But now his strangeness is seeping out of him. Like a bad rash. He's either allergic to the new cheese at work, or perhaps the re-appearance of someone from his past, someone he wished he could forget, is the cause of the changes in him.
The Good
This is a really unique story and beautifully written. August is a very likeable character and what I especially enjoyed was the feeling that all the secondary characters were actually important to the overall picture of the story. The subplots never felt like subplots, but were part of a sense of growth that everyone went through during the course of the novel; it wasn't just August's journey. And I loved so many of the other characters, they were all so different and so vital. The dialogue was often funny and made me feel as though I was part of August's life - a life which felt fully realised. The fantasy element to this story was also very interesting to read, it being wonderfully bizarre. You do also get wrapped up in August's love for food, dancing and sex, all the great joys of life.
The Bad
There wasn't really a sense of purpose to the novel. The plot sort of gently passed by with no sense of drive and no obvious conflict. August was in this way fairly passive. But the pace did feel intentional and it was never not enjoyable to read, it just wasn't a page turner.
The Somewhat Iffy
Although I thought the writing was beautiful, I also had to re-read a lot of action passages as they would be littered with metaphors or similes that took me away from picturing what was actually happening in the moment.
There was also quite a judgemental moment regarding sex that didn't seem to fit in with the overall messaging of the novel. A character confides a partner's sexual preferences to someone and describes it as being perverted, which is perfectly fine for the character to have this opinion, but it's the only opinion shown. In August's narration as well as subsequent scenes with the offending 'pervert', the view is suggested that his sexual preferences were a warning to the violent behaviours he later displays. In my opinion, that's not a healthy portrayal of sex as his 'perverted' views were not things that needed to be shamed and are also not precursors to domestic abuse.
Also there's a trans character in the novel which August accepts and the character does have a positive representation in many aspects, however I really didn't enjoy the suggestion that it 'clicked' for August why he'd never been attracted to her.
Overall
If you don't normally read fantasy, this is a easy introduction to adding in the fantastical to real life. If you don't normally read contemporary, this is a great adult contemporary novel with an air of mysticism. The characters make the novel and while the story is not a page-turner, it does make you think.
Comments