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kappareads 's review for:
The Route of Ice and Salt
by José Luis Zárate
Real rating: 3.5 stars
Read this review and more like it on my blog!
TW: internalized homophobia, homophobic violence, graphic sexual content, blood and violence
The Route of Ice and Salt is about the captain aboard the Demeter struggling with being a gay man and the mysterious happenings on board as they travel from Varna to Whitby.
The author took a concept used in literary analysis before and turned it into a novella; that vampirism can be a metaphor for homosexuality, that that the themes of forbidden desire and outsiders considering them “monstrous.” It’s also important to keep in mind that this was written in the 1990s, so the “monstrous” angle shouldn’t be taken as outdated.
While this is a novella, I still didn’t expect to read this entirely in one day. I started it kind of late and expected to read maybe a third or half of it one day and the rest another day. But I was so caught up in the story, even though I’d already read Dracula and knew most of what was going to happen, I needed to know. There were parts where I was properly creeped out or grossed out.
Speaking of Dracula, you don’t necessarily need to have read the novel to understand this novella, but it wouldn’t hurt to know some key aspects.
Also, this is am extremely sexual novel. A lot of the captain’s internalized homophobia and guilt have to do with being gay is his sexual attraction to men. He has very sexual dreams and feels bad about it after, he can’t take his eyes off his crew if they remove clothing, so he requires them to keep it buttoned up.
There were parts were the writing was so lush, I just didn’t know what the author meant. I could still follow the story, but some of his thoughts were lost on me.
I rated this 3.5 stars. This is a really excellent retelling of one section of Dracula, it kept me on my toes, and it tackles the “vampirism as a metaphor for being gay” very well.
Read this review and more like it on my blog!
TW: internalized homophobia, homophobic violence, graphic sexual content, blood and violence
The Route of Ice and Salt is about the captain aboard the Demeter struggling with being a gay man and the mysterious happenings on board as they travel from Varna to Whitby.
The author took a concept used in literary analysis before and turned it into a novella; that vampirism can be a metaphor for homosexuality, that that the themes of forbidden desire and outsiders considering them “monstrous.” It’s also important to keep in mind that this was written in the 1990s, so the “monstrous” angle shouldn’t be taken as outdated.
While this is a novella, I still didn’t expect to read this entirely in one day. I started it kind of late and expected to read maybe a third or half of it one day and the rest another day. But I was so caught up in the story, even though I’d already read Dracula and knew most of what was going to happen, I needed to know. There were parts where I was properly creeped out or grossed out.
Speaking of Dracula, you don’t necessarily need to have read the novel to understand this novella, but it wouldn’t hurt to know some key aspects.
Also, this is am extremely sexual novel. A lot of the captain’s internalized homophobia and guilt have to do with being gay is his sexual attraction to men. He has very sexual dreams and feels bad about it after, he can’t take his eyes off his crew if they remove clothing, so he requires them to keep it buttoned up.
There were parts were the writing was so lush, I just didn’t know what the author meant. I could still follow the story, but some of his thoughts were lost on me.
I rated this 3.5 stars. This is a really excellent retelling of one section of Dracula, it kept me on my toes, and it tackles the “vampirism as a metaphor for being gay” very well.