Leo is also very sarcastic in the chapters from his POV, and his mind is a delicious place: Emo chest tingles everywhere while I was reading, is what I’m saying here. So much of the dialogue is code, and Leo and James deploy words with multiple layers of meaning so as to convey intimacy, vulnerability, warning, or even annoyance in ways that were so touching. The romance between Leo and James is poignant and emotional, again conducted on two levels, public and private. This was frustrating because it didn’t fit the attentive nature of Leo’s character, and the observant, interpersonal fluency James demonstrated constantly. That was very fun.Īt times, though, a major clue would be dropped by a side character, and no one would react or notice until much later, if at all. I wasn’t going to be indulgently fed the information and have things explained to me in detail I had to keep up. Sometimes a character would make a comment that didn’t quite fit the conversation, but revealed something interesting or important, and the others would notice, but no one narrating would summarize it for the reader to emphasize what had happened. I had the feeling that because these characters are very clever, they expected me to be clever as well. Two, the mystery is written in a way that expects me to keep up. Their community becomes one of quiet, cautious acceptance and it’s lovely to read. As the mystery progresses, their private, authentic selves begin to mingle and connect with others, building a subversive intimacy of secrets that’s supported by and hidden behind their public personae. The characters each have a public face and a private world of their own, sometimes a tragic, difficult one they want or need to hide. One, I really liked the characters, the world, and the half-teaspoon delivery system of information: nothing is dumped. I’m bummed there aren’t more books to disappear into, and I might have to go re-read them immediately for two reasons. For example, there’s the bucolic setting, but around the borders are real menaces in addition to the central mystery: PTSD, the trauma of war, major societal change, and the threat of homophobia. One tagline I’ve seen reads, “cozy mystery like Agatha Christie but make it gay.” It’s not so cozy that the dead have about as much impact as a dissolving dead NPC in a video game the cozy has sharp edges. I started reading Hither, Page, finished it too quickly, immediately hunted down the sequel, The Missing Page, and read that too quickly as well.

The missing page cat sebastian