Review - Starry Nights by Julian Archer

Jamal spots Xavier across a crowded room at the opening of an exhibition of Xavier’s paintings. Both men feel irresistibly drawn to each other, and it’s the start of a serious relationship. Can they withstand the pressures that will try to pull them apart?

Sadly, this short novella feels like the outline of a story with a few sample paragraphs instead of a finished work. The writing that’s there is good, but it’s very disjointed. Passages, and sometimes entire scenes, are repeated with only minor changes. In the opening scene, Xavier is so obsessed with Jamal that he frantically starts a new painting to capture the feeling right in the middle of the opening. But the painting scene abruptly changes to Jamal and Xavier talking. There’s no further mention of the painting. In fact, Xavier’s occupation is never mentioned again. This disconnected storytelling is repeated throughout the book. Characters suddenly appear, then disappear. Xavier’s mother, who put him into care, shows up at one point and tells him “terrible things” that upset him deeply, but we’re not given any idea what was said, and it’s quickly dismissed. Frankly, if this weren’t such a short book, I wouldn’t have finished it.

The narration is essentially third-person, with the entire focus on Jamal and Xavier. Yet we don’t really get to know either one of them all that well. Xavier is an artist, although, as mentioned, that is never really fleshed out. We get no idea what Jamal does. The one thing we can say is that they’re both very expressive men. I complain frequently about the “men don’t talk about their feelings” cliché in many gay romances, but Xavier and Jamal are the complete opposite. These two declare their undying love for each other almost from the start.

Obviously, this was a disappointing read. I wanted it to be so much better. It should have either been a much longer book with all the scenes fully fleshed out, or many of the attempts at “drama” should have been cut out so the remaining could be better developed.

“Lost Along the Way” is available from Smashwords.