Historical fiction/mystery, but with issues that we’re still dealing with today: violence against women, the fight for women’s rights and for people to believe women, and the US justice system. It seems bleak, but it has a good ending. Also Martha Ballard was real, and her diary has survived to this day - amazing. Glad I read this one.

I’ve read romance novels with mental health representation before, and I think this one does a really good job with the realities of ADHD and OCD and how they can affect everyday life. Tbh it was a bit hard to read about Raine and Jack’s struggles, and I really felt for them, but as this is a romance, I knew there would be a HEA :) 

There’s a professor, his sidekick, the backer, the mysterious woman, a violent crime. Things are not as they seem. A conventional mystery but not what I’m looking for these days. I was hoping the Nigerian setting would play more of a role. 

I’m happy that romance these days can be anything it wants to be; this one is historical, set in a late 1950s NYC newsroom, humorous, with queer male main characters. It relies a lot on exaggeration to be funny, with lines like “Andy flashes Nick a smile, a thousand watts of professionally straightened teeth, and it’s like a two-by-four to the head. It takes Nick a minute to rearrange his face.” I don’t mind some of that, but sometimes I prefer more realistic prose. Still, the book is a cut above the typical romance that I’ve read and has many achingly sweet and tender moments, similar to the Heartstopper graphic novels, which I love.

3.5 stars.

First of all, let me preface this by saying that I’m glad I read this book. It was hard to read at times, and content warnings for all sorts of abuse, but I regard Laura, Peter, Danny, Alana, and Madeline as people who deserve much much more than they were given as children, and they deserve to have their stories told, so I am glad to be a witness. My forthcoming review has more to do with the writing and Gildiner’s approach, which are the reasons why I ultimately gave it 3.5 stars. So, spoilers from here on.

I have several issues with this book. Gildiner wrote about how it was imperative that her clients be unrecognizable, and so I’m not sure how much was real or composited for each. Some explanations for their pathologies seemed a bit too simple, aka

Laura’s issues with her father leading to her choosing the wrong men, Peter’s emasculation due to his mother, Danny’s throat cancer due to his losing his first language, Alana fighting her father in the video game, and Madeline’s fear of abandonment due to her mother. Maybe it is that simple, but I would have appreciated more nuance.

Gildiner used a Freudian approach for her therapy in the 80s, which I imagine is not requisite anymore. However it was fascinating to read about, especially the dream interpretation. I also had an issue with her therapeutic approach in general, including her emotional involvement, and especially her sarcastic remarks; for example,

hearing about Madeline’s affair and her seemingly sardonic comment in the book, wondering if he was the one who brought them coffee.

One more quick thought before I wrap up; I listened to this on audio, and I did not enjoy the narrator’s characterizations or voices for Peter, who is Chinese, or Danny, who is Cree. I also felt some inherent bias from Gildiner (it was a different time, and she was born in 1948) but as someone who is AAPI, I am sensitive to Caucasian interpretations of AAPI experiences. I did appreciate that she acknowledged her limitations for Danny, but I struggled as to why she didn’t with Peter.

Lastly, I’m not sure how I feel about the term “psychological heroes.” It’s undeniable that Laura, Peter, Danny, Alana, and Madeline endured horrific childhoods, but I don’t know if I like that Gildiner put them on display as heroes. I don’t know if I can idealize any of them, since there’s no one can live up to those kinds of standards, but I <i>can</i> acknowledge their resilience and their strength. 

3.5 stars.

I first heard the author on the Normal Gossip podcast, and was frankly fascinated by someone who would both want to talk about gossip and wax poetically about the sand striker (a marine worm). They must love a good story :)

In all seriousness, Imbler seamlessly weaves personal and sometimes painful anecdotes into her essays about sea animals, which contain so much of her experiences as a queer biracial person. I was struck by her chapter on that experience, where she was asked The Question aka what are you? As she writes, “The Question does not understand me as a person but an object - not who I am but what.”

4.5 stars for raw honesty, vulnerability, and a great premise that nature is perhaps one of our best teachers.

This book has many tropes of YA fantasy, with a chosen one heroine off to attend dragon school, where she will inevitably turn the world upside down - except it’s not just that. I appreciated all the representation in this book: an indigenous queer woman, surrounded by friends, one who is Black and queer, one with a disability, one with a traumatic past. Once I got past the vocabulary, it was a fast read that touched on themes of colonialism, racism, and xenophobia. There’s also strong themes of family loyalty, found family, taking a stand, and social justice. Looking forward to seeing the dragons in action in the next book.