Contemporary Fiction/Classics

First off, let me start by saying that I love the film “Groundhog Day,” so the synopsis of this story caught my attention right away, so I ordered it. It was actually December’s Book of the Month Club pick.

So “In a Holidaze” is a time-travel Christmas romance and the story starts on out December 26th. We follow a somewhat disenchanted woman named Maelyn, who has just spent the Christmas holidays with her family at a cabin in Utah with two other families, a tradition that they’ve all done since before she was born. She’s embarrassed, and maybe just a little bit humiliated because, over the holiday, she made a super-embarrassing romantic mistake. Not only that, she hates her job, is living with her parents, and has just learned that this was the last Christmas they all would be spending at the beloved cabin because the owners plan on selling it. As she broods over her life, she makes a wish to the universe: “Please show me what will make me happy.”

Her parents’ car then collides with another vehicle, and everything goes black. When she wakes up, it’s December 21st again, and she’s on an airplane bound for Utah to begin the holiday trip once again. This happens several times — she blacks out and wakes up back on the plane on December 21st, heading to Utah. So now she has to figure out what she needs to do to break this Groundhog Day-style time loop that she’s caught in. It just might have something to do with one of the two handsome brothers, Andrew and Theo Hollis, who share the cabin with her and her family and both of whom she’s known all her life. One brother is the recipient of her long-time secret crush, which she’s harbored for years, and the other is a cherished friend and just may have a crush on her.

Each time she gets sent back, she makes different choices, but as she learns, if she makes one mistake, one misstep, she had to do it all over again. Eventually, she figures out that if she ever wants to escape the loop, she just might have to overcome her fears and do that which frightens her the most.

This was a super fun, fluffy, heart-warming story, and I loved how the author used the time-loop as a plot device. It worked really well in this story. I also loved the nostalgic aspect of this story about holiday traditions, a dual-family vacation, complete with snowball fights, snow sculpture contests, playing games, stolen kisses, and eggnog.

There was also plenty of humor and a fantastic cast of characters. All of the other family and friends in the story were so endearing, with each person playing an essential element in the narrative — though I was especially fond of her family friend, Benny, who helped steer our protagonist in the right direction and who was the only one who knew what was really going on with Mae. I also enjoyed how she started to avoid the little disasters and mistakes that she knew were coming and figured that if she can prevent the little ones, she should be able to avoid the big ones too. Right?

And at the end, Mae receives an answer to her question and learns exactly what it is that will make her happy.

All in all, I found In a Holidaze to be a lovely, emotional, heartfelt Christmas romance with an intriguing plot about finding the courage to pursue one’s happiness. This playful story is ideal for anyone looking for a fast and breezy low-angst tale with plenty of holiday cheer and a big heart.

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Giovanni’s Room is a tragic classic gay literary novel written in 1956 and is quite a courageous novel for its time. The story takes place in Paris in the 1950s and follows an American man named David, who is desperately trying to suppress his sexuality and deal with his internalized homophobia.

He has a fiancé named Hella, who is off traveling in Spain. While in Paris, David begins a love affair with a handsome and passionate Italian bartender named Giovanni. He ends living with him in “Giovanni’s room,” leading to a catastrophic turn of events, mainly due to David’s inability to acknowledge or accept his true feelings for Giovanni.

David, the narrator of the story, is an extremely unlikeable character: he’s selfish, dishonest, cruel, extremely judgmental, self-loathing, self-deprecating, and feels next to nothing when he hurts those who love him. He hates himself and seems to hate anyone who cares for him, and though he claims to be happy at times, there is a shadow hanging over him, a claustrophobic feeling of despair. Yet, you can’t help but relate to him on some level, especially the shame and regret he experiences.

So what we have is a broken and complex young man struggling with his sexuality and the love triangle which he has created, creating a sort of self-made prison. Though David is mostly an unlikeable protagonist, your heart still breaks for him because of his deep self-loathing and shame, which seem to crush him and both of which, unfortunately, win out in this story leading to pain and loneliness, and terrible tragedy.

Yes, it is a grim, draining, and heart-wrenching story. Still, there are so many compelling messages and metaphors within the pages, all expressed in Baldwin’s beautiful and mesmerizing prose, almost like music. The incisive writing itself swept me away. Though it’s a short novel — coming in at only around 150 pages — it is as hauntingly beautiful as it is evocative and packs an all-mighty emotional punch in such a short span of pages.

Giovanni’s Room is an honest exploration of identity and sexuality and perhaps a reminder that love needs to be open, free, and without shame. This story was a clear example of how, when love has shame and guilt at its core, that love can quickly turn to hatred.

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This is an unconventional rom-con that follows Minnie Cooper (and yes, that is her real name), who meets Quinn Hamilton at a New Year’s Eve party after Minnie ends up getting locked in a bathroom the entire night. After talking, they realize that they are somewhat kindred spirits in that they were both born thirty years prior, only a couple of minutes apart, in the same hospital on New Year’s Eve. In fact, their mothers met and the hospital and, as it turns out, there’s a bit of bad blood between the two of them. We learn the reason for this at the beginning of the story.

Apart from being born on the same day/same place, Minnie and Quinn couldn’t be more different. Quinn is being a wealthy (though charming) party-boy with commitment issues and Minnie being a hard-working, somewhat insecure business owner/chef who’s just barely getting by. It’s also worth mentioning that Minnie considers herself jinxed because horrible things nearly always happen to her on her birthday. For instance, during the year in which the main narrative occurs, she ends up locked in her bathroom all night long, and later that day loses her apartment. Thus, she tends to stay at home and hide on New Years’s Eve/New Year’s Day.

The story is told via several different timelines, and as we move through the story, we see how Minnie and Quinn are continuously brought together, often without them even realizing it or being aware of it. For instance, some of these strange parallels involve their paths crossing several times during their childhood and teenage years, though they never officially met each other.

As the narrative progresses, which is told through both of their POVs, we also learn the backstory of their mothers, an essential element of the plotline, which I found fascinating. I also enjoyed how Minnie and Quinn change their views of each other once they begin spending some time together; so in this way, they learn not to judge a book by its cover.

This novel consists of so many more layers than merely being a love story. It’s also about family dynamics, the bonds of friendship, self-esteem, emotional baggage, mental health, and following your dreams. But what really made this novel for me were the brilliant and engaging secondary characters, each of whom added depth and feeling to the story. Not only were they complex and well-drawn, but also authentic, quirky, somewhat eccentric, and utterly loyal. The author lured me in with Quinn and Minnie’s compelling story and snappy dialog, then hooked me with the endearing and captivating characters.

All in all, this This Time Next Year is an enjoyable and satisfying read.

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Purchase This Time Next Year from The Book Depository

To The Boys Who Wear Pink is a character-driven slice-of-life story that examines the lives of several gay friends who have gathered together for a reunion party. As we move through the evening, we get a glimpse of not only the current evening through their eyes but, through flashbacks, we learn about their history and about what links them to each other. Through these various perspectives, it’s slowly revealed that there’s one specific tragic event that ties many of them, together and as the evening unfolds, we learn bit by bit what that event was.

First off, I loved the format of the book. I enjoyed how each chapter follows the thoughts and actions (both current and past) of each of the guys at the party. Some of these vignettes were more powerful and eye-opening than others, but each was riveting in its own right.

At first, I thought it was going to be challenging to keep track of so many characters, but surprisingly, I was easily able to figure out pretty quickly who’s who. Some of the characters I liked, some I adored, and some I didn’t particularly care for, all of which made the novel even more compelling for me. What was fun for me was turning the page to see whose story we were going to be introduced to next and how they fit in with the others.

There are so many themes in this sometimes dark story, including rape, incest, body shaming, drug and alcohol addiction, self-harm, cheating, sex workers, and transphobia. Throughout the evening, we follow the partygoers as they argue, fistfight, get drunk, take drugs, smoke weed, deal drugs, shag and for some of them, share with each other the tragedy of their past. It was interesting to note that almost everyone at the party was going through a particularly rough patch in their lives at the moment. However, I will say that some of their stories were exceptionally inspiring.

What’s fun about this book is how flawed and diverse all the characters were. Each was compelling in their own way and left me wanting to learn more about their lives. I loved the premise of the story — of how they gathered together once again for this one evening to reflect upon not only their current lives, but contemplate who they used to be and how they ended up on their current life path. To say this book is entertaining is to do it a disservice as it is not only entertaining but also intriguing and emotive on so many levels. It’s a hard-hitting story with a hopeful ending.

To The Boy Who Wore Pink was a subtle blow-me-away kind of book. It got its hooks into me so quickly, and I didn’t want to let go at the end; I’m still mulling it over many days later. This volatile and unpredictable novel wrecked me in the best and most unexpected ways. It’s a story full of melancholy and charm, and I’m so happy I picked it up.

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