LGBT Month is hosted by Cayce at Fighting Dreamer and Laura at Laura Plus Books. It runs throughout April and it’s here to celebrate LGBT readers, LGBT authors and of course LGBT books!
A Kiss in the Dark
Author: Cat Clarke
Author: Cat Clarke
Publication Date: April 3rd 2014
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When Alex meets Kate the attraction is instant.
Alex is funny, good-looking, and a little shy – everything that Kate wants in a boyfriend.
Alex can’t help falling for Kate, who is pretty, charming and maybe just a little naive…
But one of them is hiding a secret, and as their love blossoms, it threatens to ruin not just their relationship, but their lives.
Alex is funny, good-looking, and a little shy – everything that Kate wants in a boyfriend.
Alex can’t help falling for Kate, who is pretty, charming and maybe just a little naive…
But one of them is hiding a secret, and as their love blossoms, it threatens to ruin not just their relationship, but their lives.
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-Spoiler Warning- I did write this at first with no spoilers, and it had little impact on what I really wanted to say. So, it was impossible to write about this in a
way that wouldn't spoil anything, though I'm not spoiling everything and besides, you get to know the truth within the first
couple of chapters. I also wanted this
to be more of a discussion review than an actual one because it's a serious
issue.
This one was a hard one to get through, not because of the
subject but because of the reality of it. It's relative, and that's what's
fucking scary, because it shouldn't be. You know? It shouldn't be such a big
ordeal, and I both hate and pity Alex for what she pretended to be because she
wasn't secure in herself, and you know why that is?
Because of society.
It's scared of change, of fear, and that makes impressionable
imprints of conceived ideas of what is right
and what is wrong.
Alex is scared of her sexuality, and that's a hell of a
tough thing to deal with yourself, and then you have the added pressure of what
that would make you by society's standards. Which, runs parallel to Kate after, and contributes
to her actions but I'll get to that in a minute.
Because by society you're gay. Strange. Unnatural. But, what
the hell does natural even mean
anymore? Boob jobs? Nose jobs? Cosmetic surgery to make you feel less insecure,
to make you feel happy about yourself, to accept yourself? And what does
society say? That's fine, if you want to change or "fix" things to
make you the person you want to be? What's the harm, if you can look in the
mirror and like what you see there.
Nothing.
Then we come to someone looking in the mirror and telling
themselves that who they are, who they like and love, is okay.
What does society say about that?
But that isn't natural now, is it?
Who says what is natural or not?
Because it sure isn't having implants stuck in you, yet it's
accepted, yet being yourself isn't.
Now I've had my lovely rant, I'll get back to the book.
Alex's family were sort of supportive, and said they
wouldn't care if she was, and I loved that, but she also had to figure it out
for herself. She was questioning her own sexuality, so it wasn't a thing of knowing that she liked girls. In a way,
I think it's why she was so deceiving, because it was a safer way of finding
out, but of course then she was scared of Kate finding out and it got out of
control, but you know what? Even though what happens, happens, I don't think
she'd regret it, because by doing it she found herself in a way, and she knew she was in love with Kate and she
wasn't scared about that.
Once Kate finds out, she is devastated, and I get that, but she was also more concerned of what
people would think because she had been dating a girl. She had a whole lot of issues herself to work out ,and her
mother was, quite frankly, a bitch. The first thing her mother asks after she
tells her is are you a lesbian? Not
that she was hurting, not that she was scared and had about a million things
going on in her own head, she was just worried her daughter was gay. And this
is why Kate's actions also spiralled out of control and why she did what she
did. Partly for revenge, though that sizzles out quickly, but mainly because
her mother was horrified by the fact she might be a lesbian.
Though A Kiss in the Dark is a whole lot of shade and
deception, and in some actions with what the characters did were wrong, but it
was an amazing way to show love is love.
It's not about the sex or gender or whether you're gay or not.
Because, it's not even focused on that, Kate fell in love
with a person. It was great way to
show how gender specifics can play a role in that, in a way that, being female,
do you like guys because you're expected to?
Vice versa. It was actually what made this pretty amazing because when you come
down to it, once again, it's to do with society's standards. You're not
expected to like the same sex, but with A Kiss in The Dark, Kate didn't know, and
she fell in love with her, without knowing, yes, but she fell in love with Alex
for who she was.
A Kiss in the Dark is a realistic, gritty novel of growing
as a person, of loving a person of acceptance and one that will stick with you even after the last page.
~A proof copy was provided by Quercus in exchange for an honest review~
Rating: 4.5/5
