“Who the hell answers the door naked?”
In a word: Read the thing.
The Summary: (from Goodreads) Fifty-six-year-old Samuel Phillips is all alone on his small farm in the Ozarks, with nothing but a menagerie of chickens, pheasants, turkeys, and other birds as company—which is just the way he likes it. In fact, if Samuel had his way, he’d tear down his neighbor’s house so his solitude could be absolute. One day Faloola, his favorite turkey, escapes, forcing Samuel to make the trek next door. When Raymond Webber—sixty-seven—answers the door as naked as the day he was born, Samuel doesn’t know whether he’s more annoyed… or attracted. The two men are opposites in every way—Samuel is serious, while Raymond believes in free love and herbal relaxation. The weeks leading up to Christmas are rocky to say the least, but some holiday spirit might help them get past their differences….
[available for purchase at Dreamspinner Press, Amazon.ca, Chapters, and Barnes & Noble; also available as part of the Dreamspinner Press 2017 Advent Calendar set]
The Trigger Warning: This book contains homophobic language.
- It really isn’t often that I read a story where the main characters are in their fifties and sixties. That was pretty interesting. And one of the leads was an actual crotchety old man.
- Another thing that I find doesn’t really come up in a lot of the M/M stuff I read (especially the ones that take place in the present day): the AIDS epidemic. This story doesn’t go into it much, but Samuel does mention losing a lot of friends to AIDS back in the day, and Raymond had a husband (non-official, because it wasn’t legal at the time) die from it. The AIDS mention is really the closest this story gets to any actual angst; the rest is mostly silly and more lighthearted.
- Although Samuel learning that Raymond had killed and cooked his favourite turkey came pretty close to angst.
- The whole thing is told through Samuel’s first-person POV, which is fine, but I wish we’d gotten something from Raymond’s POV because I imagine that would be quite the trip.
- Samuel is a grumpy old farmer man, Raymond is like an aging hippy and probably a bit crazy. Clearly they’re made for each other. It’s great.
- There actually isn’t much Christmas in this, mostly just near the end. The whole story takes place over the course of a few weeks and ends with Christmas. The focus of the story isn’t on anything Christmas related; mostly it’s on Samuel out living his solitary life exactly the way he wants to until he doesn’t want to anymore.
- Samuel’s first meeting with Raymond involves Raymond answering the door to his house completely naked. It’s as hilarious as it sounds.
- Aside from a bunch of farm fowl and one appearance from an acquaintance of Samuel’s, Samuel and Raymond are the only two characters in the story. Luckily they’re both pretty entertaining and can carry the story on their own.
- I’m not sure what it is, but something about this story makes me think that it was meant to take place in the English countryside? Or something? I dunno. Samuel and Raymond live out in the country – Samuel owns a farm – and they’re in near total isolation. This takes place in America, though, just in a really isolated place (the Ozarks, apparently).
- I honestly didn’t think I was gonna like this one, but I really did.
[Hope Is the Thing With Feathers was published December 1, 2017, by Dreamspinner Press; it is only available as an ebook]
Advertisements Share this:
