Author Archives: Jaclyn

Unknown's avatar

About Jaclyn

Reader, writer, bookaholic for life!

Review | Becoming Ted, by Matt Cain

Posted on by
1

Becoming Ted is a heartwarming and feel-good novel about a 40-something man who pursues his lifelong dream of becoming a drag queen after his husband of 20 years leaves him for a younger man. It’s a story of friendship, romance, and mustering up the courage to be truly and unapologetically yourself, and it’s an absolute delight to read.

Ted Ainsworth won my heart pretty much from the first page. It’s clear how much he gives of himself to the people he loves. For example, even though he hates ice cream and dreams of becoming a performer, he agrees to manage his parents’ ice cream shop to make his parents happy and allow his sister to pursue her dreams of superstardom. He adores his then-husband Giles’ good looks and charisma, and thinks only of how lucky he is to be married to such a man. He leads a comfortable, if vaguely dissatisfying life, punctuated mostly by his weekly Fri-date with his best friend Denise to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Ted’s rather lukewarm combination of comfort and dissatisfaction is deeply relatable to anyone who’s ever gotten stuck in a rut that’s just too safe to climb out of. Fortunately for Ted, he does get forced out of his rut when an idyllic Sunday morning is interrupted by the revelation that Giles has been cheating on him, and worse, actually wants to leave him for this other man.

Ted’s heartbreak and major drop in self-confidence feels very real, and his journey to fulfilling his drag queen dreams and truly come out as fully himself is an absolutely rousing tale that’ll make you cheer him on all the way. I love how Matt Cain details all the little insecurities and doubts Ted experiences at each stage of his drag queen journey, and I especially love how Cain shows all the love and support Ted gets along the way. Community plays a major role in Ted’s story, and it’s heartwarming to see so many people, both old friends and new, step up to give Ted the boosts he needs.

Ted’s romance with Oskar is equally heartwarming. Throughout the story, we see little glimpses into Ted’s life with Giles, and fairly quickly realize that Giles isn’t actually as perfect as Ted had initially believed. There are many instances when he puts Ted down, or makes Ted feel self-conscious about the things he enjoys doing. So seeing that relationship contrasted with the one gradually blooming with Oskar makes you even happier for where Ted’s story is headed.

Oskar is far from perfect. He comes from a super conservative Catholic upbringing in Poland, and as a result, is still reluctant to live openly as a gay man. As sweet as their first few dates are, Ted raises a really valid concern that Oskar’s secrecy about their relationship feels a bit like going back into the closet for Ted, which hurts given how much he’s risked to come out of the closet in the first place. And when Ted finally risks revealing his dream of becoming a drag queen, Oskar’s response is… well, it wasn’t great, but it was understandable. In fact, it’s kudos to Cain’s masterful craftsmanship that, in that moment, we feel for Oskar just as much as feel for Ted.

Overall, this is a delightful, heartwarming, heart-expanding book. A fitting choice for Pride Month, and a lovely read year-round.

+

Thank you to Kensington Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | The Off Season, by Amber Cowie

Posted on by
Reply

The Off Season had an interesting hook: documentary filmmaker Jane Duvall moves into a remote hotel during the off season with her new contractor husband, Dom, and his teenage daughter, Sienna. Dom is tasked with doing renovations at the hotel to prepare it for the next tourist season, and Jane is coming off a work-related scandal (the details of which we don’t learn till much, much later than really necessary) and hoping the atmospheric hotel will give her material for her next film. Except odd things start happening at the hotel, and the more Jane digs into its history, the more she learns of mysterious deaths and disappearances linked to the place, most notably Dom’s ex-wife and hotel owner Peter’s son.

So far, so compelling. I love locked room mysteries and thrillers rooted in family secrets, and a remote hotel during the off-season is such a wonderfully atmospheric setting for such a tale. Unfortunately, this book didn’t fully work for me. So much of the success of this kind of story lies in the setting and the main character, and neither really gripped my interest.

I didn’t really understand why Jane was so fascinated by the Venaventura Hotel; apart from her being stuck there for a few months. She was really drawn into the history of the hotel, but from an outsider’s perspective, I didn’t really find the hotel super mysterious beyond Jane’s assertions that it was.

I also didn’t really understand why she was so into Dom at all. There were a couple of steamy scenes, but mostly he seemed like a bit of a jerk, and his secrecy about his wife’s death was such a giant red flag that I wondered why on earth Jane even married him in the first place. His daughter Sienna is a total brat, and honestly, I just felt Jane should leave and both Dom and Sienna should go into family therapy to deal with unresolved feelings over Dom’s ex-wife.

A lot of the issue comes from the fact that Jane has only known Dom for a few short weeks (I think?). So when Dom starts acting shady, and Sienna starts doing cruel things, and Jane literally thinks she’s in danger from one or the other, or both of them, I don’t understand why she still keeps wanting to make it work. I may have understood more if the goings-on at the hotel made her want to escape, and the story turns into a race against time to leave while she still can. But instead, she keeps flip-flopping between wanting to run away and wanting to make things work with Dom and Sienna, and that just gets really frustrating to read after a while.

In terms of thrills, there’s a lot going on: mysterious mean notes scrawled on mirrors, potshots taken at Jane, a trip wire designed to cause serious injury, and a lot of stuff that is unclear if they’re signs of danger or mere coincidences (for example, Jane’s phone falling into a sink full of water so she can no longer use it). There are also elements to enhance the atmosphere of danger, such as the bridge becoming damaged and a storm coming in. And of course, all the mysterious deaths and disappearances.

But to me, these are all elements of a thriller that don’t quite have a compelling enough emotional core to make me care. I see the danger, and I want Jane and the stray cats she took in to be safe. (Good news: the cats remain alive and unharmed till the end.) But since I don’t really understand why Jane cares so much about Dom, Sienna, and their new family in the first place, then whenever something new and dangerous happens, I just wanted her to break up with Dom and take herself and the cats away.

All to say, this book didn’t work for me. But at least the cats survive, and also to the author’s credit, I didn’t guess the big reveals.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | Goyhood, by Reuven Fenton

Posted on by
1

When their mother dies, estranged twins David and Mayer learn that they’re not actually Jewish as they’d been brought up to believe. Worse, their mother’s grandfather was a Nazi.

The revelation isn’t a huge deal to David, who has lived a fairly secular life, but Mayer has dedicated his entire adult life to studying the Torah. A devout Orthodox Jew for decades, Mayer must come to terms with the revelation about his family’s past, and figure out how to break the news to his equally devout wife, Sarah, who is also the daughter of a very well-respected rabbi.

David suggests a road trip back to Mayer’s home in New York, and since Mayer doesn’t have enough money to pay for a flight home for himself, he is forced to agree. What follows is a light-hearted, sometimes absurd, but always heartwarming road trip novel, as the brothers come to terms with their family history and their long-ruptured relationship with each other.

I really enjoyed this novel. Both David and Marty respond to their non-Jewishness in different ways, but at both their cores is a deeply-rooted desire to figure out who they are exactly, and where they may belong. David’s desire to become better friends with his younger twin is equally obvious; Marty’s a bit too stuck on adhering to strict rules of morality and behaviour to be easily open to friendship with his more free-spirited brother, but it’s good to see him slowly emerging from his shell.

The story is populated with entertaining side characters: Charlayne the social media influencer on a quest of her own, and Popeye the rather mangy stray (read: abandoned) dog whom David convinces Mayer to let him take along. Each has their own role to play in the larger story, but for me, the story is strongest when it focuses on the relationship between the brothers. The story David tells of Marty standing up to a bully when they were younger was so full of brotherly pride that it made my heart burst to hear it. And the moment where David confesses his desire to convert to Judaism, only for Marty to unequivocally shut him down, is heart-breaking.

I’m not Jewish myself, but I imagine that all the little details about the nuances of different approaches to Judaism will resonate even more meaningfully for Jewish readers. As for me, I enjoyed learning about these nuances, such as: the restrictions around gentiles (non-Jewish people) participating in Jewish traditions; the term “Noahide,” which refers to gentiles who abide by seven laws (I looked them up, and it was interesting to me as a Catholic to see where they overlapped and differed with the ten commandments I knew); and processes around Jewish conversion and divorce.

I also really enjoyed this novel’s exploration of questions of identity, and what it’s like to have to redefine yourself after learning that the most essential aspects of yourself aren’t actually true. I also really liked the way the novel explores questions of faith and faith-based identities, and all the different ways one may choose to have a relationship with their god of choice.

Overall, this is a good book, and a fairly lighthearted romp, despite tackling some tough topics.

+

Thank you to the author for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.