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A review by peggyd
The Cleveland Heights LGBTQ Sci-Fi and Fantasy Role Playing Club by Doug Henderson
3.0
I love the title and location of this book--I found it browsing at my local bookstore (Book Soup!) and it truly called to me. It's been awhile since a book did that.
So I was primed to love it. And there are good things about it--it's a fast read with some funny moments and some heartbreaking ones. Some cringe-worthy ones too. It's about a Dungeons & Dragons club that meets in the back room of a local book club. The members are all LGBTQ and there's a hot newcomer, Albert, that shakes things up, particularly Ben a mopey, dorky club member.
The back cover details the D&D club but also implies that "some things" start bleeding into the real world and mentions a competing vampire club (I know!) and things like that. I don't know if I was expecting magical realism or something but it was really just people in their mid-twenties trying to figure their shit out and often failing miserably. There may be a lesson of finding your magic in the real world, which, yes, but also...I needed more. We get perspectives of multiple characters but this book really is about Ben and wants to be a quasi-romance book about Ben and Albert, and that's fine, but then the sidetrips with the other characters become a bit thinly-drawn and even, dare I say, a little stereotypical. I still don't understand the real purpose of the vampire group except to be vaguely threatening and annoying.
So it didn't really come together in the end but it's an entertaining read overall. I hope Henderson publishes more.
So I was primed to love it. And there are good things about it--it's a fast read with some funny moments and some heartbreaking ones. Some cringe-worthy ones too. It's about a Dungeons & Dragons club that meets in the back room of a local book club. The members are all LGBTQ and there's a hot newcomer, Albert, that shakes things up, particularly Ben a mopey, dorky club member.
The back cover details the D&D club but also implies that "some things" start bleeding into the real world and mentions a competing vampire club (I know!) and things like that. I don't know if I was expecting magical realism or something but it was really just people in their mid-twenties trying to figure their shit out and often failing miserably. There may be a lesson of finding your magic in the real world, which, yes, but also...I needed more. We get perspectives of multiple characters but this book really is about Ben and wants to be a quasi-romance book about Ben and Albert, and that's fine, but then the sidetrips with the other characters become a bit thinly-drawn and even, dare I say, a little stereotypical. I still don't understand the real purpose of the vampire group except to be vaguely threatening and annoying.
So it didn't really come together in the end but it's an entertaining read overall. I hope Henderson publishes more.