The Arena of the Unwell

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The relationships between Noah, Fraser, and Dylan are really well depicted, with the reader able to feel each cutting moment and see how they were hurting each other. And, I’ll preface this by saying I KNOW depression/anxiety are crippling and they may not be ‘a good reason’ but in a novel… I need a bit more of him helping himself otherwise the character doesn’t come across as sympathetic, only whiny. this book takes what it is to exist on the edge of things, never truly present or part of life, and transforms it into a tale of sexuality, mental health and general life.

A coming of age novel for people who like or came of age themselves deeply into music, The Arena of the Unwell spirals the reader into not only sticky floors and spilt pints, but a hard-to-put-down toxic relationship amidst the realities of NHS cuts for mental health services.There’s a sense of humour, which helps to stop people from throwing the book aside for being too bleak, but the self-consciousness, that second-guessing, is dialled way up.

He likes to go out, see ‘Indie’ (yes inverted commas as Indie is not a music style and it bothers me) bands, get drunk, take drugs, not use dating apps or go to gay bars, and not take his medication. The book is told from Noah’s first person perspective, with the previously mentioned press snippets about Smiling Politely intercut (I very much enjoyed that these were often cut off like real news sites if you weren’t a paying member). He published his debut non-fiction title The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture as part of 404 Inkling’s series, and his debut novel publishes in Spring 2022. It does not set Noah within an entirely queer world, noting his sense that he does not want this but also highlighting that sometimes he feels “not gay enough”. With all that being said, there are some truly harrowing and very realistic descriptions of addiction throughout.Unfortunately it turns out to be a much more fraught relationship and complex situation than he imagined. It was just such a rich environment for stories and for interpersonal relationships because it is quite charged a lot of the time,” he explained to Lighthouse Books. PLEASE NOTE: From 1st of July 2021, shipments from the UK to EU countries will be subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) charges. From the first screech of his electric guitar upsetting musicians at a folk festival to his writing and paintings, Bob Dylan has risen to become a seminal force in American popular culture.