Glitterland
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4.4 • 38 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of BOYFRIEND MATERIAL comes a deeply emotional romance about heartbreak, hope, and learning to love against all the odds.
Once the golden boy of the English literary scene, now a clinically depressed writer of pulp crime fiction, Ash Winters has given up on hope, happiness, and—most of all—himself. He lives his life between the cycles of his illness, haunted by the ghosts of other people's expectations.
Then a chance encounter throws him into the path of Essex-born Darian Taylor. Flashy and loud, radiant and full of life, Darian couldn't be more different...and yet he makes Ash laugh, reminding him of what it's like to step beyond the boundaries of his anxiety. But Ash has been living in his own shadow for so long that he can no longer see a way out. Can a man who doesn't trust himself ever trust in happiness? And how can someone who doesn't believe in happiness ever fight for his own?
Alexis Hall's iconic Glitterland has been revised and expanded, with extensive bonus content and a stunning new cover by Elizabeth Turner Stokes. Bonus content includes:
• Author Annotations: Alexis Hall’s insights and commentary threaded through the novel
• Shadowland: a brand new scene exploring Niall and Max’s complex relationship
• The Glass Menagerie: an entertaining look at an in-universe Rik Glass novel
• A Letter from the Author discussing the experience of writing Glitterland
• Darian’s Nanny Dot’s Cottage Pie and Aftermath, brought together from the original release
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There is a lot to be titillated by in this delightful gay romance from Hall (Boyfriend Material), the first in his Spires Series. Ash Winters, a reasonably successful London novelist with bipolar disorder, meets Darian Taylor, a glitzy, self-tanned Essex fashion model, at a nightclub. After a few initial hiccups, these polar opposites fall into a shockingly successful relationship as Darian's good cheer coaxes Ash into situations outside of his comfort zone. Though Hall has a sensitive hand with Ash's mental illness throughout, the happy relationship results in an almost unbelievably huge alteration in Ash's personality and approach to the world. Hall writes Darian's dialogue in Essex dialect—suggesting, for example, that the inscription to Ash's latest novel should read, "To the geeza what I slept wif and then done a runner on in the middle of the night, making 'im feel like a right slapper?" This near-caricature has a distracting effect and distances readers from the narrative, especially as none of the other characters speak with comparable dialectical mannerisms. Still, Hall's trademark humor and heart shine through. It's a cheery, hopeful love story proving that those with mental illness can have just as much fun—and sex—as those without.
Customer Reviews
Learning and loving.
Ash and Darian would seem like a odd couple at the outset, but Ash seems to be able to accept Darian’s intrusion into his life, even if Darian seems to be pushing his comfort level…. I was initially attracted to this book, because I was curious about the bipolar-depressed character, someone I have never really known. The book is told from Ash’s perspective, which demands the reader to feel the distinct negatives in a bipolar’s view of what most would see as common and unthreatening. The changes that Darian causes are perhaps because he either doesn’t realize Ash’s mental limitations or he refuses to see Ash as mentally limited, but just different. I felt the experiences that Ash and Darian had were a believable reality for the characters, and the growth of their relationship was real, too. I came to like Ash and hope for his successes. Darian, with the accent that I almost understood by the end of the book, was one of sweetest, likable characters I’ve met. This was a major learning experience for me, and I hope I could rise to level of good guy that Darian is, if I ever experience an Ash in real life. Great reading experience.