Buckle up folks – it’s rant time.

It’s clear that this book was… well-intentioned. There are a whole bunch of -isms and -phobias appearing. While that isn’t what makes a book a bad book, the way they are used and handled is.

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I want to start with the character of Fallon. Our only female main character, we are told to hate her from the very start. In her first appearance, she goes on a white-supremacist tirade, quite happily aligning herself with neo-Nazi ideals and being an all around Bad PersonTM. It’s so sudden and such a terrible introduction to any character that it feels jarring. Her husband Donovan hates her and is afraid of her, to the extent that he hopes their unborn child is a girl because he’s afraid of how she will treat a son. Now, this isn’t a comment on only this particular author, but just because I’ve read a few similar things in the past year or so; there is a trend of some male authors ‘flipping gender roles’ by making the women controlling and domineering, and men submissive and frightened. This is not the space to expand on that, but I’ll just leave that here to make what you will of it.

The main thing that, quite rightly, other reviews have highlighted, and I will too, is the trans representation in this book. I think the author intended this to be positive, complex representation, and to explore how sexuality and gender intersect. I’ll start with a small thing: the reading group questions at the end use “transman” as one word instead of two. It’s an easy mistake to make, but indicative of a larger lack of understanding.

So Levi’s main purpose in this book is to be in a love triangle with the main character, and be the first person who isn’t a cis man that Carry (the main character) is with. First of all we had Carry musing on how Levi is an inherently deceptive person and clearly untrustworthy, but reassures us that he’s fine with it. The way Levi’s body was described was incredibly uncomfortable to read, and all-in-all it was far from the “Queer and Trans-positive” story promised in the author’s bio. While I’m sure this was intended as a positive depiction, I think it’s ultimately harmful.

On this note, the book focuses almost exclusively on M/M relationships, including Carry’s doubts as to his relationship with Levi, and Donovan resenting his wife as he would rather be with a man. Again, this isn’t the place to unpack that but it’s worth mentioning.

Onto something else entirely: the setting. This book felt completely detached from any place or time which I absolutely love. Especially for a Great Gatsby inspired book, the timeless feel really adds to the atmosphere. All of that being said, this was apparently set in the modern day, and every reference to Facebook pulled me right out of the story. It felt jarring; a timeless, placeless, 1920s-inspired nebulous location would have worked much better.

So after complaining about this book for half a page, why did I give it two stars instead of one? Well, it was undeniably gripping. I desperately wanted to find out what happened and was engrossed every time I picked it up. There was so much potential which, if it hadn’t been for the issues raised above, could have made a fantastic book. The writing style was good, and overall? I think it was a well-intentioned but ultimately poorly thought-through book.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.