The Bitter Comet

This was definitely an interesting book. The Bitter Comet is the story of one of the least sexually repressed families in fiction. Jensen and Jacob are having an affair, even as two others wait in the wings to seduce them. Meanwhile Tyler climbs back to the living despite having romantic entanglements with Lucifer. After all of the seductions and sex, consensual and otherwise, Lucifer comes back to settle things, sort of. This is followed up by a number of interesting one-offs and explanations that don’t exactly explain much.

One of the hard parts about this book is its constant use of stereotypes in order to bust them. It’s that use that makes this a hard book to review. The stereotypes fly fast and hard, and build on one another to the point that the plot disappears every so often. Making it worse, the characters resist any attempts at character development, excluding one final curse that, with any luck, will force the character in question to evolve. It doesn’t help that this story comes off as a duel between Gary Stus, as each character is the ultimate paragon of their separate clichés, and there is even the standard swipe at authority and religion.

This is one of those reviews that can easily go either way. As a satire of gay relationship fiction, it works rather well, going well over the top when it needs to. If it had gone into more intimate details of the acts depicted rather than merely describing the emotions involved then this would have been a vastly different review. However, combined with the appendices, this makes for an interesting read, especially for someone looking for something borderline erotic with a taste of philosophy. This is definitely one of those books you will either love or hate; you have been warned.