WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 75. This Is Not a Love Story by Suki Fleet (Gay Romance/Homelessness/Dark Urban Fiction)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22499313-this-is-not-a-love-story

One word came to my mind as I read this book, hopelessness. The subject matter is something a lot of gay authors explore, including me, because it’s part of gay community’s shared experience. Even if you never face homelessness or severe poverty, you probably have met someone or loved someone who faced these circumstances. Above that, I appreciate the main character’s portrayal as someone with disabilities, who endures what no one should in a heartless world that is filled with empty platitudes and false hopes. In 2014, this book won the best gay debut story in the Rainbow awards and was a finalist in the 2015 Lambda awards. It deserves praise for being a powerful story about survival and suffering, hope within hopelessness. I highly recommend readers to give this book a read.

Length: 270 pages long and 9 hours 6 minutes on audible. It’s a long and grueling journey into the lives of homeless LGBT teenagers living on the streets of London. In comparison to lighter British gay novels, like Boyfriend Material, you will find very little to laugh about here. It’s attentiveness to detail is like the dark settings of Charles Dickens, which is a sad reflection to how ugly and heartless the modern world has become. I’d recommend this book for fans of Great Expectations or Oliver Twist.

Fair warning there’s implied rape, molestation, substance abuse, mental health issues, and suicidal thoughts among youths in the story.

Plot: Romeo is a 15 years old mute homeless gay teenager, who struggles to survive on the streets of London. He is closely following Julian, who saved him from being beaten to death by a gang of street thugs. Julian is another homeless teenager boy, who is two years older than Romeo. To make money to survive on the streets, Julian sells his body for sexual favors. As the story progresses and their situation becomes more desperate, Julian and Romeo had to endure exploitation, abuse, and sexual assault. From police officers steering homeless teens to shelters with hidden predators and dangers to other homeless youths, who have given up on life and others like them, the plot paints various low points in Romeo’s story through London’s underbelly. At times, when Julian appears lost forever or dead, Romeo loses his will to live. Julian too also suffers and develops a drug addiction after the destruction of a place the homeless boys held dearly. Towards the end of the novel, Romeo is offered a chance at a better life, but he cannot abandon his experiences on the street and especially the tragic love in his drug addict boyfriend. While the epilogue is happily ever after, it may be unbelievable compared to the dark plot thread that was laid out before.

Review: I really like this story and thought the characters were well developed, despite sometimes wanting to smack Romeo and Julian for this idiocy, but it is part of their charm as teenage characters without any stabilizing factor in their lives. If you do not read this novel from the vantage point of a mature adult with years of experience, but imagine yourselves as a gay teen with no means to survive on the streets and very little to dream for except the next meal or a warm place to squat, it makes all the character choices logical, despite it being irrational even to the characters upon reflection later.

As for social commentary, Romeo is a Russian born boy, who is picked on for being both mute and his ethnicity. The casual throwaway line on why street thugs beat him up specifically due to his “refugee” status, along with all the innuendoes that adults in London appear to throw his way upon seeing him, appears to be an indictment from author regarding UK society’s judgmental outlook. This kind of view made it harder for Romeo to get help among authority figures, not to mention he cannot communicate verbally with others due to his inability to speak. As only a handful of people understand sign language, some readers will grow increasingly disturb at how ignorant and prejudicial these encounters occur. Beyond just the language barrier, a lot of the harrowing scenes of underage prostitution and sexual exploitation are due to these themes of prejudice and ignorance. Police clearing of homelessness from the street results in shelters and prostitution rings being filled by innocent people of all ages with no other place to go. The social services system may try to do the right thing, but the resources are few and not enough to suffice, thus institutions grow like underfunded homeless shelters with dangers from other homeless along with administrators, and lucrative sexual workshops that treat homeless people like cattle. As Charles Dickens noted two hundred years ago, ignorance is the mark of doom as people imagine their government and organizations are doing the right thing, while looking down on the homeless who have valid reasons to avoid the institutions or the false hope of predators.

Romeo is the point of view character, so you will understand his motivations and desires more than anyone else. Romeo as a character is explored thoroughly, he’s afraid of authority and asking for help due to his disability being something others can use. I can understand why he made some of the choice he did, despite thinking he was headstrong and irrational. Still, as a disabled gay male, I can understand how hard it is for him to live and his frustration with the world that he lives in. He never gets a break and at times, I worried that he would allow a passing train to finish him off, when all hope seemed loss. Despite Julian trying to protect him, Romeo was sexually exploited for his and Julian continued survival. When I read that part early in the novel, I knew there was no happy romantic character arc in this novel and could tell this would be a character with immense darkness overlapping him. By the time he witnesses Julian succumbing to drug addiction, it was believable that he snapped. Truly a well-rounded character that was put through the ringer. Julian in contrast is someone you can understand through inference as a lover, who has been beaten down by life. Julian progression from selfless partner to self-destructive character was logical progression, but sadly, we never got his point of view, so we do not how his mental state operates.

As many others have noted, the ending is the weakest part of the novel. I cannot fault the author for wanting a happy ending for Romeo and Julian, versus their namesakes Romeo and Juliet double-suicide ending. Personally, I feel like the obstacles of trauma, sexual abuse, and drug addiction would likely have haunted Romeo and Julian even if they continued. Personally, I’d rather Romeo and Crash, one of the interesting supporting characters, form a romantic relationship, despite what it means for Julian. It would be more realistic and mental health wise would be better for Romeo to break co-dependency; though, under that circumstance it’s likely Julian would have died like one of the many drug addicts on the streets. For the character’s sake, I’m fine with the unbelievable happy ending.

Rating: 4.5 out 5, it’s a great novel with some very dark themes and settings. A modern Dickensian story that highlights LGBT homelessness and various societal issues.