There’s a whole lot going on here, to the point that I’m not sure where to start. “At the beginning,” you say? Yeah, I guess that makes the most sense. Things start off in pandemic times (future people, if we’ve had several pandemics since, I’m talking about roughly 2020-21) with a man drinking outside on the patio of a bar. As he’s getting ready to leave a stranger at the bar buys him a drink, they have a conversation and after the man (Curtis) can’t place where he’d previously met the stranger (Anton, but we don’t know that yet), Curtis is given a hint that clears a whole lot up. They met in a self-defense class where Curtis was the instructor 5 years ago, and Anton is looking for a refresher on some of those lessons. It’s an unconventional teaching style, as Anton often initiates conflict unexpectedly, with some pretty damned sexy results. Believe me, it’ll make sense when you read it. But Anton is incredibly guarded and protective of their privacy, which makes all the sense in the world when we learn what their life was like through the early part of the pandemic. It’s hard to deal with all of the consequences of the pandemic even now, and a lot of it is due to not being sure which people that you talk to have any connection to reality, and which can only see things through a purely partisan lens. Side note: we may need to come up with a word other than “partisan,” because “refuses to wear a mask or believe in covid because my cult leader didn’t like the way that masks smeared his bronzer” is too long (though entirely accurate). Anyway, the difficulty of dealing with this goes up considerably if you’ve suffered a loss from covid, as this book so devastatingly portrays. The character building throughout is detailed and layered, the social commentary is present but muted (if that sort of thing scares you off, you big baby) and this feels like one of those books that you could start over right after reading it and get even more out of it. If you haven’t already read any of Blue’s stuff, this is a pretty damned solid place to start. It’s also listed as $5 through the link, which can’t be right? This is a full color graphic novel. Still, check with Blue, I’m sure they can clear it up…
