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Be Gay, Do Crime is the sophomore follow up to Editor’s Molly Llwellyn and Kristen Buckley Peach Pit: 16 stories of unsavory women. In this collection of stories we see pure queer chaos and boy or boy is it FUN!
My favorite stories include;
Redistribution by Temim Fruchter in which a lovesick young writer begins an obsession with a famous writer after a failed relationship. In an act of what she considers cosmic redistribution, the young writer begins to steal from strangers homes.
Wild Ale S J Sindu a story of a married couple trying to survive living in the Midwest during the early stages of the Covid 19 pandemic. They’re both coping in very different ways. One suffering on the brink of a mental breakdown. One getting really into home beer brewing.
Peep Show by Alissa Nutting in which a young couple hides their relationship from their tech bro boss.
Bad Dog by Anna Dorn the story of twins who couldn’t be more different and what obsession can do to a person. Especially when that obsession turns toxic.
Grabs Beaver Cabin by Emily Austin in which we see a woman trying to heal her inner child by entering coloring contests and claiming the prizes.
Each of these stories are covered in rich layers and pack a mean punch in the short amount of time they’re given. Much like Peach Pit, I am shown the works of beloved authors whose work I so deeply admire and am also introduced to new talent. Thank you so much to Molly for giving this shameless reader an advanced copy. Be Gay, Do Crime is out this June preorder your copy now!
Every sweet thing is bitter is a story of resilience as a trauma survivor navigates a home she left in hopes of trying to break that generational trauma. We follow Providence Byrd as she heads home in search of her missing mother who 13 years earlier she ran over with her car. Her mother survived and Providence became a teen felon with a life she’d never be able to repair. The circumstances under which her mother went missing seem odd, but Providence knows she’s needed there. In her homecoming she searches her small town for any closure she can get. She yearns for relationships with her two younger sisters Harmony and Grace still stuck under their father’s abusive thumb. She’s also convinced wherever her mother is, it’s Tom Byrds fault. As she searches her home town she is haunted by old memories and ghosts from her past. Trying her best to shield her sisters from the past knowing they’re both also irreparably damaged from Providence’s sin.
Crewson has this fantastic ability to transform a hideous topic with such raw vulnerability and delicate hands. We watch the impact trauma has on survivors bodies and minds. The things our nervous system is willing to put up with in order to keep us going. As well as what we’ll endure to protect those we love. It’s a meditation on found family and the grief you suffer once you finally realize blood doesn’t have to tie you together. The role religious trauma on top of her familial trauma plays within these pages are bone chillingly spot on. Housing bible verses within your body you have no idea how or why you still know them, not coming out to an abusive parent in fear of them harming you even further.
My biggest critique is that a few of the side characters diversity felt a bit forced to me. I do appreciate Crewson’s ability to create a diversity baseline within her novel, just wishing a few of them had a more organic introduction. With that being said, it is a bold debut novel that is going to skyrocket Crewson’s career as a writer.
I recommend this book to readers who love Gillian Flynn, Chelsea Bieker, anyone who came out late in life, and any survivors of religious trauma.
Thank you netgalley and crooked lane books for this copy in exchange for an honest review!
