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A review by e_oneita
Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey
4.0
This is an ultimately lovely little book that is terribly bleak and heart-breaking in parts. It is also necessary; those of us fortunate enough to live in LGBT friendly areas forget that there are large parts of the country where oppression and shame are still rife. Laskey does an excellent job of depicting this, and not sensationalizing the bigotry into something cartoonish. Part of what makes the novel so bleak in parts is how elegant she is at exposing that "mundane", yet oh so awful, bigotry.
As a debut, Under the Rainbow is incredible. Laskey tackles so many heavy topics in this book, and does so very well. Although I was desperate to know more about her characters, I also appreciated her narrative style of stepping back from them to make room for other important stories (apart from one lovely exception). As a debut author she is already proficient at showing in just a few lines immense character changes (see Christine, one of the many not-villains in the book), which foreshadows even more accomplished novels to come from her.
Read this book, but do make sure you take a few breathers.
As a debut, Under the Rainbow is incredible. Laskey tackles so many heavy topics in this book, and does so very well. Although I was desperate to know more about her characters, I also appreciated her narrative style of stepping back from them to make room for other important stories (apart from one lovely exception). As a debut author she is already proficient at showing in just a few lines immense character changes (see Christine, one of the many not-villains in the book), which foreshadows even more accomplished novels to come from her.
Read this book, but do make sure you take a few breathers.