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A review by dithkusu
Gideon by Lily Morton
3.0
I didn't doubt with Lily Morton's usual writing style that I wouldn't at least get to like Gideon after his antagonistic role in the previous book, and she didn't disappoint. Gideon isn't without flaws, he's still prickly and grumpy, but with this book we're shown the full picture of him, and as he gets out from under himself and opens up and becomes happy, his tendency towards sarcastic sharpness goes out and he forges good relationships with his friends and family, with his love interest Eli, with himself.
I even saw how he could be so cutting and mean before, having been living from set to set, hotel to hotel, moving from one meaningless relationship to another, and not slowing down because then the loud silence of his loneliness would get to him. I understood his feeling of being the outsider to his circle of friends-turned-family and not knowing how to bridge that gap, the unfairness of his parents' neglect towards him while focusing the attention on younger Milo. It also reminded me of an article I read of actor Damian Lewis saying how the elite British boarding school system, sending off little boys at such a young age, brings about a form of sociopathy, something along those lines- it really is a traumatic and emotionally isolating practice when you think about it. Then add on the burden of Gideon being closeted for so many years in public and private, and you get why he is the way he is.
The psyche of Gideon aside, I liked the initial start of this book that gets the ball rolling, how Gideon who is weakened and sick has to set aside time to recover, be forced to actually take time for himself and have to take stock of his own life. Him being brought onto this octogenarian-targeted Italian cruise headed to the UK is hilarious, and his assigned nurse is the good-natured sunny Welsh Eli Jones, exactly the balm needed to his foil. It was also nice to get Eli and Gideon interacting extensively with Milo and Niall, Silas and Oz, and have Gideon's familial relationship with them strengthen and repair from his jerkassery before- I always enjoy the whole collective group of couples together in a book series. While I'm still not over Gideon's actions prior to this book, and still the messiness of the past entanglements among the group, this was the least awkward case scenario to how they would all get along going forward; their whole Spice Girl names interaction was lovely.
TBH, I didn't really feel Gideon and Eli's connection or their romance during the start. But it was after the time jump of four months later, after some time of Gideon having recuperated at Cornwall and Eli coming back from another job, when they sleep together and spend time together, that it actually clicked for me. I appreciated too that there wasn't full romance while Gideon was being nursed by Eli, that would've been messy galore and a bad reflection on Eli's character. There's also not much else to characterize Eli with aside from his love for his profession, his cheeriness and competence, and opposite nature to Gideon that makes them a good match, but he's more chill that way and all the angst goes to Gideon's end.
I liked this, but didn't fully cross the threshold to loving it. Most of it is because of my lack of attachment to Gideon and Eli's relationship until the later half, and also because of the one dimensional cartoonishness of the villain in this story, Gideon's agent Frankie. The catalyst to Gideon having been conditioned to think his gayness was something to be buried forever and that he would always be alone and unlovable, Frankie the typical money-skimming exploitative emotionally abusive agent. The cartoonish villain element is something that is in a lot of Lily Morton's plots, usually an ex, and here it was particularly pronounced, I didn't like it. The conflict of Gideon being outed/ choosing to publicly come out and deal with the changing result to his acting career would've been enough.
Also present was the constant side characters telling Gideon and Eli how much they have the hots for each other, only a blind person could miss it, etc., even in the very beginning when they were just sailing off from the cruise, as Gideon the invalid and Eli the nurse. I both like and wish it wasn't so big: the ending epilogue where it's a lot of years later and Gideon and Eli's life together is elaborated out in its domestic bliss. Nice to see they're happy with a loving thriving community and family, but also seems like a shortcut rather than showing in the book more on their relationship. Still, the idea of how lovely Gideon's life turns out after his years closeted and alone is really sweet, and glad that Eli has also found the dream career and life for him.
(Love the idea of the two distinguished British actors of Lily Morton's books here, Asa and Gideon, both finding low-key partners who are lovely and have "normie" and heroic everyday jobs. Also the idea of them interacting and in the short story following this, them becoming couple friends! They have quite a bit in common. They should've mentioned the mutual friend connection between them, via Henry/Gabe/Dylan! Lovely to see the group from Asa and Jude's book as well.)
(Just imagining Gideon as a proto-Richard Armitage/ some other beloved British actor now, especially with him having the golden voice for audiobooks, which the author probably intended!)
I even saw how he could be so cutting and mean before, having been living from set to set, hotel to hotel, moving from one meaningless relationship to another, and not slowing down because then the loud silence of his loneliness would get to him. I understood his feeling of being the outsider to his circle of friends-turned-family and not knowing how to bridge that gap, the unfairness of his parents' neglect towards him while focusing the attention on younger Milo. It also reminded me of an article I read of actor Damian Lewis saying how the elite British boarding school system, sending off little boys at such a young age, brings about a form of sociopathy, something along those lines- it really is a traumatic and emotionally isolating practice when you think about it. Then add on the burden of Gideon being closeted for so many years in public and private, and you get why he is the way he is.
The psyche of Gideon aside, I liked the initial start of this book that gets the ball rolling, how Gideon who is weakened and sick has to set aside time to recover, be forced to actually take time for himself and have to take stock of his own life. Him being brought onto this octogenarian-targeted Italian cruise headed to the UK is hilarious, and his assigned nurse is the good-natured sunny Welsh Eli Jones, exactly the balm needed to his foil. It was also nice to get Eli and Gideon interacting extensively with Milo and Niall, Silas and Oz, and have Gideon's familial relationship with them strengthen and repair from his jerkassery before- I always enjoy the whole collective group of couples together in a book series. While I'm still not over Gideon's actions prior to this book, and still the messiness of the past entanglements among the group, this was the least awkward case scenario to how they would all get along going forward; their whole Spice Girl names interaction was lovely.
TBH, I didn't really feel Gideon and Eli's connection or their romance during the start. But it was after the time jump of four months later, after some time of Gideon having recuperated at Cornwall and Eli coming back from another job, when they sleep together and spend time together, that it actually clicked for me. I appreciated too that there wasn't full romance while Gideon was being nursed by Eli, that would've been messy galore and a bad reflection on Eli's character. There's also not much else to characterize Eli with aside from his love for his profession, his cheeriness and competence, and opposite nature to Gideon that makes them a good match, but he's more chill that way and all the angst goes to Gideon's end.
I liked this, but didn't fully cross the threshold to loving it. Most of it is because of my lack of attachment to Gideon and Eli's relationship until the later half, and also because of the one dimensional cartoonishness of the villain in this story, Gideon's agent Frankie. The catalyst to Gideon having been conditioned to think his gayness was something to be buried forever and that he would always be alone and unlovable, Frankie the typical money-skimming exploitative emotionally abusive agent. The cartoonish villain element is something that is in a lot of Lily Morton's plots, usually an ex, and here it was particularly pronounced, I didn't like it. The conflict of Gideon being outed/ choosing to publicly come out and deal with the changing result to his acting career would've been enough.
Also present was the constant side characters telling Gideon and Eli how much they have the hots for each other, only a blind person could miss it, etc., even in the very beginning when they were just sailing off from the cruise, as Gideon the invalid and Eli the nurse. I both like and wish it wasn't so big: the ending epilogue where it's a lot of years later and Gideon and Eli's life together is elaborated out in its domestic bliss. Nice to see they're happy with a loving thriving community and family, but also seems like a shortcut rather than showing in the book more on their relationship. Still, the idea of how lovely Gideon's life turns out after his years closeted and alone is really sweet, and glad that Eli has also found the dream career and life for him.
(Love the idea of the two distinguished British actors of Lily Morton's books here, Asa and Gideon, both finding low-key partners who are lovely and have "normie" and heroic everyday jobs. Also the idea of them interacting and in the short story following this, them becoming couple friends! They have quite a bit in common. They should've mentioned the mutual friend connection between them, via Henry/Gabe/Dylan! Lovely to see the group from Asa and Jude's book as well.)
(Just imagining Gideon as a proto-Richard Armitage/ some other beloved British actor now, especially with him having the golden voice for audiobooks, which the author probably intended!)