Book Review: The Feast of Panthers by Sean Eads

Reviewer: Alan Chin

Publisher: Queer Space (August 23, 2022)

Rating: ★★★★

Pages: 420

 

All of Great Britain is thrown into jeopardy by an ancient Egyptian deity seeking to reestablish her religion in the heart of nineteenth century London. She is ruthless, merciless, and lethal. Her loyal followers are formidable shift changers who prefer to take the shape of panthers when they hunt their prey. As she gains followers and power, she decides she needs Oscar Wilde to become her high priest. With his abundant talent for writing, she wants him to write the most awe-inspiring invocations to her greatness. Wilde, with help from lovers and friends and even enemies, goes on a campaign to destroy this power-hungry immortal. Throughout the battle to overcome her tyranny, Wilde comes to better understand his relationships with his young male lovers, his wife, close friends, his enemies, and he finds what’s ultimately important in his life. But what helps him most is what the Goddess craves, his own genius as a writer and playwright.

 

An insightful, far-reaching novel pushing the boundaries of human imagination, where the forces that give life value―art, poetry, music, wellbeing, care, loved ones―are thrown into sharp relief. The Feast of Panthers exposes our shared vulnerability, the limits and benefits of compassion, and the fragile nature of being human. 

 

I confess I’m not a devotee of fantasy/thriller fiction, but I am a huge fan of well-crafted writing, and so I very much enjoyed this novel. This story has vibrantly drawn characters overcoming hideous foes. It is a story of survival, but more so it is an entrancing story of realizing love of those closest to you. 

 

The Feast of Panthers is a skillfully crafted yarn. The fears, loneliness, anxieties, and surprising intimacies seem genuine, and carry the reader along.

 

Like so many formula thrillers, this story leaves the reader feeling satisfied. It is a stimulating read with a splash of gay stardust to keep things more interesting.  

 

 

Book Review: Small Rain by Garth Greenwell

 

Reviewer: Alan Chin

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 302

 

Rating: ★★★★★

A man’s life is thrown in jeopardy by a sudden, wrenching pain in his gut that thrusts him into the heart of the dysfunctional American healthcare system. Now a prisoner in an ICU ward, surrounded by an army of healthcare workers—some caring and competent, many indifferent and/or incompetent—he struggles to understand what is happening to his body, his life, and the man he loves.

A penetrating, far-reaching novel pushing the boundaries of human experience, where the forces that give life value―art, poetry, music, wellbeing, care, loved ones―are thrown into sharp relief. Feelings expand and contract: sense of time, fear, hope. Intimacies bloom. Fears crush. Small Rain exposes our shared vulnerability, the limits and benefits of sympathy, the ideal of art, and the fragile dream of America. Above all, this is an unexpected love story. 

 

An incredible novel… I confess in many ways I found this a horror story. The descriptions of the dysfunctional American healthcare system were both shocking and depressing. But this story has vividly drawn characters, many of them heroes, overcoming a hideous situation. It is a story about survival, but more so it is a beautiful love story. 

 

When the protagonist goes into the hospital with a ruptured blood vein, he’s close to dying, and because this happens during the height of the COVID epidemic, he is allowed no visitors. He is separated from a man he loves while faced with dying. This is a tender story of being divided from a loved one and the life you’ve created with him at the point in your life when you need him most.

 

Small Rain is an exquisitely crafted yarn. The fears, loneliness, concerns, and surprising intimacies seem genuine, and carry the reader along. The prose read like a diary, but the voice is one with the refinement of a seasoned professional.

 

I have now read three Greenwell novels. The other two, Cleanness and Mitko, were equally remarkable. Greenwell has quickly become one of my favorite gay writers. I can’t wait to read his other story, What Belongs to you.