And Then There Were (N-One), by Sarah Pinsker

[mllelaurel]

Sarah, an insurance adjuster, receives an invitation to a con for interdimensional versions of her. Though she thinks the whole thing is a joke at first, her wife Mabel convinces her to go. The first part of the story is a very believable and frequently funny portrayal of the convention itself. The plot thickens when one of the Sarahs is found dead, and our Sarah, the closest they've got to a detective, gets drawn into the investigation.

I read rachelmanija's review last week and knew this was a must-read for me, as someone who loves time loops, alternate universes, and other variations on a theme, which are often used to reveal the truest parts of a character.

First of all, I loved the use of a genuinely amateur detective. Neither the author nor the character pretends she's a pro at this. She makes very believable mistakes, acknowledges them, sometimes realizes too late she's messed up the evidence. She is also clever, insightful, and cares genuinely for the individuals who make up a fraction of the myriad versions of her. The mystery is engaging, fully thematically integrated, and solid enough to hold up on re-read. All the clues were there for me to discover, though I didn't file all of them properly as I read. The ending revelation felt inevitable and bittersweet. This story was, in short, everything I wanted out of it.

Sarah's relationship with Mabel is largely in the background, but it's ultimately pretty relevant to everything that's going on, and as someone who's seen too much of 'I want adventure but my spouse says don't go,' it was wonderful seeing Mabel encourage Sarah, knowing she'd regret the missed chance if she didn't take it.

Highly, highly recommended.

Beebo Brinker (Ann Bannon)

[el_staplador]

I have been aware for a long time that this is one of the great lesbian pulp novels, probably second on the f/f classics reading list after The Well of Loneliness, so when Kobo attempted to flog it to me for less than four quid, I accepted gracefully.

Beebo Brinker is a teenage butch Lesbian (this book was first published in the early sixties, and the capital L still reigns), not that she is prepared to admit this for a good quarter of the book. It covers her arrival in Greenwich Village and her first love affairs, which come hard upon each other's heels.

It's a delightful piece of wish fulfilment: if only I had been brave enough to run away to New York at the age of seventeen, it suggests, I too might have had women falling at my feet, might have had a Hollywood star sweep me up and take me away.

I particularly liked Beebo's friendship with Jack, the gay man who befriends her when she first arrives. I was also taken with the subtle way that Bannon portrays the contrast between Beebo's lack of confidence with the way the outside world assumes the opposite; in fact, her youth and inexperience felt very convincing all round.

I was less impressed with the Evil Bisexual Mona. A trope Of Its Time, I suppose, though I fear it still pops up these days.