A review by dillarhonda
Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon

Rachel Lyon’s debut novel, Self-Portrait with Boy is the sort of book that begins paragraphs with the phrase “I could tell you” followed by all the things the protagonist wants to share and summed up by the trite cliché, “…but I won’t tell you that.” It’s the sort of book that uses the art world and grime of 1990s DUMBO as a backdrop for an ethical investigation and then crams in a ghost story. It’s also a story about a queer woman discovering her love for women, though the lede is so buried on that one as to almost be an afterthought. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining book and a decent place to start for a writer clearly interested in big ideas. Its persistent question: How much does it hurt to profit off the pain of someone you love?