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A review by lizzderr
Fail Seven Times by Kris Ripper
5.0
Justin has a problem. His two best friends, Alex and Jamie, seem to want something from him--something Justin doesn’t feel he can give them. Alex and Jamie have been happily coupled for about five years, and the three of them spent a wild, drunken night together a few years ago. Fail Seven Times picks up as they have a second kinky threesome--this time entirely sober. But Justin feels like he’s on the outside looking in at Alex and Jamie’s perfect relationship, and he can’t see a place for himself as more than their friend. He knows he’d just mess everything up. He knows his best friends deserve better.
Meanwhile, the artist for whom Justin works as an assistant is creating a major project inspired by the work of Enrico Hazeltine. Hazeltine died of AIDS in 1991, and Justin fell in love with him through Hazeltine’s writing when Justin was a troubled adolescent. His boss’s project throws Justin back into Hazeltine’s writings, which get Justin thinking about queerness, and community, and mortality. Most importantly, they bring Justin back to his central question: How could someone like him--snarky, bitter, obsessed with control--deserve true love?
I enjoy the “friends become lovers” and “a couple becomes a triad” tropes, and I’ve particularly enjoyed them as Kris Ripper implemented them in previous novels. As I expected, ze put those tropes to great use here. What caught me off guard, though, was the intensity of Justin’s self-loathing. As someone who has at times had a hard time believing I’m worthy of love, it was difficult watching Alex and Jamie try so hard to love Justin, only to have him push them away. I struggled with whether or not to give the book a five-star rating, because sometimes reading it just hurt too much. In the end, though, I went with five stars, since it was clear that everything I was feeling was exactly what Ripper was trying to make me feel.
As was true in the other two books of zirs I’ve read, I love the community of queer folks and kinksters that Ripper has created on the page here. I also love the beach house Jamie, Alex, and Justin are fixing up, as both a set piece and as a metaphor. Good, good stuff all around.
Note: I was provided with a copy of Fail Seven Times in exchange for an honest review.
Meanwhile, the artist for whom Justin works as an assistant is creating a major project inspired by the work of Enrico Hazeltine. Hazeltine died of AIDS in 1991, and Justin fell in love with him through Hazeltine’s writing when Justin was a troubled adolescent. His boss’s project throws Justin back into Hazeltine’s writings, which get Justin thinking about queerness, and community, and mortality. Most importantly, they bring Justin back to his central question: How could someone like him--snarky, bitter, obsessed with control--deserve true love?
I enjoy the “friends become lovers” and “a couple becomes a triad” tropes, and I’ve particularly enjoyed them as Kris Ripper implemented them in previous novels. As I expected, ze put those tropes to great use here. What caught me off guard, though, was the intensity of Justin’s self-loathing. As someone who has at times had a hard time believing I’m worthy of love, it was difficult watching Alex and Jamie try so hard to love Justin, only to have him push them away. I struggled with whether or not to give the book a five-star rating, because sometimes reading it just hurt too much. In the end, though, I went with five stars, since it was clear that everything I was feeling was exactly what Ripper was trying to make me feel.
As was true in the other two books of zirs I’ve read, I love the community of queer folks and kinksters that Ripper has created on the page here. I also love the beach house Jamie, Alex, and Justin are fixing up, as both a set piece and as a metaphor. Good, good stuff all around.
Note: I was provided with a copy of Fail Seven Times in exchange for an honest review.