Louis Chanina (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grayestofghosts) wrote2024-04-04 11:47 am
grayestofghosts) wrote2024-04-04 11:47 am
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10 Novels #4: What Manner of Man by St. John Starling
Novel #4 was a little different as it started as a web serial, which can be found completed here. It's described as "a queer gothic romance novel about a priest and a vampire." I think a part of what led me to read this is because I was able to read it on my tablet with a backlight, meaning I could read before bed without disturbing my partner. Maybe I should carry this idea forward with the rest of my reading...
Anyway, as to the novel itself. I mean, it seems like it would be My Jam, but there was something about it that led me to just think it was fine. It was missing some kind of je ne sais quoi, and it's hard to describe exactly what that is. I wonder if it has to do with it actually being a web serial rather than as one chunk. There's also the possibility that what is missing is in the bonus content that are only available to paid subscribers, though the text reads and makes sense as it is. Or maybe an issue with the epistolary format itself -- I remember having a terrible time getting into Dracula the first time I tried to read it. There's just something unengaging to me about reading letters, even if they're unrealistically detailed accounts. And, for that reason, just because I found something missing doesn't mean that I don't think you should read it -- it feels more like a 'me' problem than anything else, and I'm interested in the novel the writer wrote before this one because it might solve these issues.
Anyway, as to the novel itself. I mean, it seems like it would be My Jam, but there was something about it that led me to just think it was fine. It was missing some kind of je ne sais quoi, and it's hard to describe exactly what that is. I wonder if it has to do with it actually being a web serial rather than as one chunk. There's also the possibility that what is missing is in the bonus content that are only available to paid subscribers, though the text reads and makes sense as it is. Or maybe an issue with the epistolary format itself -- I remember having a terrible time getting into Dracula the first time I tried to read it. There's just something unengaging to me about reading letters, even if they're unrealistically detailed accounts. And, for that reason, just because I found something missing doesn't mean that I don't think you should read it -- it feels more like a 'me' problem than anything else, and I'm interested in the novel the writer wrote before this one because it might solve these issues.