There’s more to Australian drag superstar Courtney Act than meets the eye, and I’m not talking about the obvious tricks of plucking and tucking. Courtney Act, aka Shane Jenek, has forged a multimedia career based on talent and hard graft. If your only knowledge of Jenek is from RuPaul’s Drag Race then his memoir, Caught... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer ★★★★
Arthur Less is back. The titular star of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Less, is being put through the emotional ringer once more by his author Andrew Sean Greer and the results are the same. But the same isn’t a bad thing when you’re talking about a bestselling, universally praised, gay comedy drama with a slew... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Heat Wave by TJ Klune ★★★
TJ Klune wraps up his YA superhero trilogy, The Extraordinaries, with Heat Wave which sees teenager Nick launching into his superhero career, as well as launching into his fully-fledged relationship with Seth. Quick note: being the last part of a trilogy, there’s no way to avoid spoilers for the previous books in this review. Nick... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper ★★★★
If you’re looking for a cute, contemporary gay romance to snuggle up with then Kris Ripper’s Book Boyfriend is a good place to start. Behind it’s rom-com trappings, it has hidden depths and a beautifully flawed lead character in PK. Preston ‘PK’ Harrington is an editorial assistant (and wannabe author) working at a book publisher... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Dangerous Kingdom of Love by Neil Blackmore ★★★★1/2
“Everything is about sex. Except sex, which is about power”—the quote, apocryphally attributed to Oscar Wilde—sums up much of the machinations at the heart of Neil Blackmore’s brilliant The Dangerous Kingdom of Love, a thrilling retelling of the later years of Francis Bacon’s life with the seductive frisson of Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Shooting Midnight Cowboy – Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel ★★★★
I'm not going to call Midnight Cowboy a masterpiece, that is a word that gets thrown around too much (like luxury it has lost it has lost all meaning.) Midnight Cowboy is better than that. It is a perfect film. All of the elements: the script, the direction, the casting, the costumes, the cinematography, the... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Set the Stage by Daniel de Lorne ★★★
I don’t know about you, but one of the things I’ve really missed during the lockdowns has been theatre. The communal experience of seeing a story told live was and will always be a big part of my cultural diet, so I approached Daniel de Lorne’s new gay romance warmly. A gay love affair set... Continue Reading →