Owen Blacker reviewed Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
Review of 'Amberlough' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A tough read but a great book. Looking fwd to the sequels — after sth lighter first
I've been exclusively reading queer fiction this year, to raise my mood and this is not the queer joy I had been looking for. It is, however, a wonderful look at a flawed beauty, just as it comes to an inevitable end.
Several reviews and blurbs mention [a:John le Carré|1411964|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1606816199p2/1411964.jpg] and Cabaret (1972), both of which are apt comparators and it was no surprise to read that Donnelly credits the latter as an explicit influence. Our 3 protagonists are: a desk-jockey spy with trauma in his past; his lover, leading man and drag queen at the titular city’s hottest club, who’s a smuggler to boot; and this latter’s leading lady, an awesome brassy broad.
The creeping fascism coming to destroy and reshape their city isn’t subtle and all 3 are …
A tough read but a great book. Looking fwd to the sequels — after sth lighter first
I've been exclusively reading queer fiction this year, to raise my mood and this is not the queer joy I had been looking for. It is, however, a wonderful look at a flawed beauty, just as it comes to an inevitable end.
Several reviews and blurbs mention [a:John le Carré|1411964|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1606816199p2/1411964.jpg] and Cabaret (1972), both of which are apt comparators and it was no surprise to read that Donnelly credits the latter as an explicit influence. Our 3 protagonists are: a desk-jockey spy with trauma in his past; his lover, leading man and drag queen at the titular city’s hottest club, who’s a smuggler to boot; and this latter’s leading lady, an awesome brassy broad.
The creeping fascism coming to destroy and reshape their city isn’t subtle and all 3 are doing the best they can with the shitty hands available to them. It’s heartbreaking at so many points and needs a content note for on-page torture and murder as well as that impending threat of creeping fascism. Donnelly did an excellent job at stripping me raw, yet leaving me some hope, even as so much and so many are lost.
I’m definitely looking forward to reading both sequels. But after reading something lighter first. As I finish this blogpost, I’m halfway through Armistice, the second instalment in this trilogy, and now that the fascism is present and “over there", rather than spreading and “over here", it feels less traumatic, even as I read old characters and new all being affected by their interactions with the fash.
If you want to know more before getting hold of a copy, I would strongly recommend the Goodreads reviews by Seth Dickinson (another favourite author of mine, whose [b:Baru Cormorant trilogy|23444482|The Traitor Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #1)|Seth Dickinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1422463936l/23444482.SY75.jpg|43007917] is fantastic) and by Optimist ♰King’s Wench♰.
CN: on-page torture, on-page murder, creeping fascism
