The LGBT Fiction Shelf
Tell the Rest
Lucy Jane Bledsoe
https://www.lucyjanebledsoe.com
Akashic Books
232 Third Street, #A115, Brooklyn, NY 11215
www.akashicbooks.com
9781636140797, $28.95, HC, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Tell-Rest-Lucy-Jane-Bledsoe/dp/1636140793
Synopsis: Delia Barnes and Ernest Wrangham met as teens at Celebration Camp=
, a church supported conversion therapy program based on the dubious, unsci= entific, Christian practice meant to change a person's sexuality. After wit= nessing a devastating tragedy, they escaped in the night, only to take sepa= rate roads to their distant homes.
They have no idea how each has fared through the years. Delia is a college = basketball coach who prides herself on being an empowering and self-possess=
ed role model for her players. But when she gets fired from her elite East = Coast college, she's forced to return to her hometown of Rockside, Oregon, =
to coach at her high school alma mater.
Ernest, meanwhile, is a renowned poet with a temporary teaching job in Port= land, Oregon. His work has always been boundary-pushing, fearless. But the = poem he's most wanted to write about (his dangerous escape from Celebration=
Camp) remains stubbornly out of reach.
Both persist in the mission to overcome the consequences and inhumane costs=
of conversion therapy. As events find them hurtling toward each other once=
again, they both grapple with the necessity of remaining steadfast in one'=
s truth, no matter how slippery that can be. Tell the Rest is a powerful no= vel about coming to terms, with family, history, violence, loss, sexuality,=
and ultimately, with love.
Critique: With a very special and intense appeal to readers with an interes=
t in LGBTQ fiction, "Tell The Rest" is an extraordinary and compelling read=
from cover to cover. One of those riveting novels that will linger in the = mind and memory long after it has been finished and set back upon the shelf=
, "Tell The Rest" is unreservedly recommended for both community and academ=
ic Contemporary Literary Fiction and LGBTQ Fiction collections. It should b=
e noted for personal reading lists that "Tell The Rest" is also available i=
n a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Lucy Jane Bledsoe (
https://www.lucyjanebledsoe.com) is the = author of several works of fiction, including A Thin Bright Line, which was=
a Lambda Literary Award and Ferro-Grumley Award finalist. She is the winne=
r of an American Library Association Stonewall Award, a Yaddo Fellowship, a=
California Arts Council Fellowship in Literature, two National Science Fou= ndation Artists & Writers Fellowships, and a finalist for the Northern Cali= fornia Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Award.
Flux
Jinwoo Chong
Melville House
46 John Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://www.mhpbooks.com
9781685890346, $28.99, HC, 352pp
https://www.amazon.com/Flux-Jinwoo-Chong/dp/1685890342
Synopsis: "Flux" by Jinwoo Chong is a impressively original and stylish deb=
ut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his myst= erious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel -- and are using=
it to cover up a string of violent crimes...
Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic acci= dent, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big= -media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial ag= ainst an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his=
family.
So begins Jinwoo Chong's dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements =
of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue b= egin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental=
technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is t=
he saga of an iconic '80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has impl= oded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse.
"Flux" is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nat= ure of grief, of moving past trauma, and of the pervasive nature of whitene=
ss within the development of Asian identity in America.
Critique: Original, carefully crafted, inherently fascinating and truly mem= orable, "Flux" is even more impressive when considering that it is author J= inwoo Chong's debut as a novelist. While available for personal reading lis=
ts in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99), "Flux" is especially and unre= servedly recommended as a new addition to community and academic library Co= ntemporary LGBTQ Literary Fiction collections.
Editorial Note: Jinwoo Chong (
https://jinwoochong.com) received an MFA from=
Columbia University. His short stories have appeared in The Southern Revie=
w, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Salamander.
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Midwest Book Review
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