Bettina and Bart have grown up as best friends, so surely they will end up together? After all, Bettina is young, rich, headstrong…. and gay. Bart is young, rich, charismatic… and also, definitely, gay. Any doubts are dispelled by, in short order: that ghastly kiss; a torrid encounter for Bettina in the school boiler-rooms; and an eye-opening Parisian visit for Bart.
Society will never stand for it. What else can they do but enter into a ‘lavender marriage’ and carry on indulging their true natures in secret? As the ’20s and’ 30s whizz past in a haze of cigarettes, champagne and casual sex, Bart and Bettina have no idea that they are hurtling, via Hollywood and Egypt, Paris and London, towards tragedy and bloodshed…
What are two upper class Brits to do when they realise they're both homosexual? Enter into a lavender marriage and keep on keeping on, of course. Through the twenties and thirties, hurtling towards WWII, they do their best to chart a course.
I hoped I'd enjoy this book, but sadly, it isn't for me. It's extremely crude, with constant mentions of body parts and sex. Everyone who passes through Bart and Bettina's orbits seems to suddenly be gay; Bettina is effectively raped at one point and no one makes anything of it; Bart and Bettina are deliberately, constantly cruel to each other.
I loved the language. It really does so well at evoking a time period and a mood. (I could do without the constant, casual cursing, especially with the continuous references to body parts, but that's just me and I know people have different attitudes about swearing.) Parts of the story are very witty and funny. The murder plot, ostensibly the point of the whole thing, was really only important in two different chapters, and the rest of the story has nothing to do with it.
Not an awful read, if you want to read a lot of sex, drugs and cursing, but not for me.
The Inverts publishes on the 1st August, 2021. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
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