Game Changer

Well that was a lot of fun. I read this after watching the TV show. Remarkable how close the show follows the book! Very little was changed. Plenty cut though, there's only an hour or so for this whole novel.

The fun thing in the book is seeing more depth. Particularly Kip's POV, his pride in being out and then the anguish of being with Scott. There's also more steps to Scott's coming out that are fun. The impact of the Big Kiss isn't quite as exciting in the book, the TV show really did set that up marvelously. I think cutting Scott + Kip's story in and out of Ilya + Shane was a smart choice for the show.

Back to the book, my one complaint is about a quarter of the way in there was too much sex. Never thought I'd say that! The sex is well written, hot and a little porny but not too much so. But then she writes the romance part of the book well too. And there's a stretch where after the fifth sex scene I was ready for more feelings and talk. Maybe it was like the rhythm of a new intense relationship where the sex takes front of stage. Or maybe the author was just finding her balance. Overall the result was fine.

There's a thread of criticism from gay men that this book and this TV show were written by a woman and that was appropriation. I didn't feel that way at all. I get the concern, but this book felt pretty authentically gay to me. Both the sex descriptions and the emotional stuff felt true, not like a woman imagining what gay men are like.

One unique thing in this romance is a detailed description of what it feels like to be in the closet. From both perspectives, the closeted man and the out man who loves the closeted man. I don't think I've read that view in a romance novel before, at least not in this detail. I wonder if that experience is less accessible to young readers. For me at age 54 it was quite familiar.