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Another Life by Andrew Foote.
I read with interest the thread http://forum.iomfats.org/t/9016/ about Thilo by Andrew Foote. I have only read one of his books, I think by recommendation on here. I did not feel my comments on the book I read would fit into the other thread, so I post them here.
What did I think about the book?
The author has an obvious interest in canals and the industrial past of the Midlands, something that he managed to weave into the story, and it was interesting.
The story plot worked fine, it all hung together.
The characters were good, but I found some of the relationships and interactions unrealistic, in particular Ed and Callum. I can't think it's realistic for Ed to get drawn into a gay relationship with Callum where nothing happened and then to find a younger boy, remembering he started out pretty much straight.
Toggle SpoilerThe street kids all being together and bringing down Carl with the help of the 'lone ranger' Mr Busby, the whole paedophile ring run by villains into drug trafficking, for me it was too far fetched to be believable.
I have read other stories with a similar theme, that is about street kids, and of course I make comparisons. One in particular, set in the US ( https://theboysofsunset.wordpress.com/0001-chapter-one/) it's not a finished book, but very real. Another is a short story set in Canada, I think ( http://www.gayauthors.org/story/mikiesboy/levko) very, very real.
This book was engaging enough, both story wise and character wise, that I carried on reading because I wanted to know what would happen and the plot had twists and turns.
It was an enjoyable read despite my viewing it as less than realistic, but then it is fiction, and it didn't need to have graphic sex scenes, not at all, but the 'no sex' really did get extended to absolutely no sex, described or not.
Yes it was well written, but I couldn't help feeling that it was more realistic in describing the British waterways than it was in relating young gay love within the plot of a mediocre detective story.
Perhaps I am being a little harsh, but I did not come away with any wow factor or feeling that that was a good book I just read.
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