Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The New Life

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

The New Life is a well-written and deeply emotional novel about experiences of queerness in late-1800s London. I loved it.

For you if: You like deeply imagined characters who make questionable choices.

Not for you if: You don’t like sexual content or prose occasionally on the flowery side.

FULL REVIEW:

I picked up The New Life after seeing it on a few most-anticipated lists for 2023, and wowza, am I glad I did! What a well-written, deeply emotional novel.

The book takes place in London in the late 1800s Two men have teamed up to write a book making a scientific argument against the criminalization of homosexuality. John is a closeted, married gay man who begins a passionate affair with a man from a different social class. Henry is a quiet but prolific proponent of “the new life,” a future where marriage is redefined. He’s married to a woman from the same movement, and theirs is anything but a traditional marriage. The book they’re writing is going well, until Oscar Wilde’s sodomy trial happens — when taking a stand goes from feeling clear and right to questionable and risky.

One thing I’ll say right off the bat is that this book has a lot of sexual content — from literally the first page. But there’s a big difference between sex for sex’s sake, and what Crewe does here, which is use it to deepen our understanding of these characters and what motivates them. Honestly, I found it impressive.

I also thought that Crewe wrote confrontation scenes in a really expert way. Whenever the characters were in direct conflict, we got so much insight into their psyches, but in a way that felt like we were learning about them just as they were learning about themselves. It was particularly heart-wrenching and just very well done.

I will say that the prose can be flowery at times. I happen to like that, but I know it’s not for everyone. All in all, I found this to be a really excellent novel about queerness and sexual exploration, plus the tension between being true to yourself and the unintended consequences on those around you.

Please read this!

Content Warnings

abigailbat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Loosely inspired by actual people, this novel tells the story of two men who endeavored to publish a book normalizing homosexual behavior in 1890s England. At the time, being gay and the acts of male homosexual sex could get you sent to prison and doing hard labor. This book (which actually existed) set out to argue against criminalizing something that is part of some people’s natures. Although the book is definitely a huge bummer, it was eye opening to read. This is a important part of history (however we might not like that to be true). Through novelizing the story, the author is able to humanize the characters, both extremely flawed. It’s well worth a read for anyone interested in queer history.

Content Warnings

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