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Kissing the Lizard
Kissing the Lizard is an evocatively set desert gothic―part creepy coming-of-age story, part macabre-comedy, set partly in buzzing 1990s London and partly in barren New Mexico wildlands.
When Jamie meets Matthew in Soho, he’s drawn to his new-age charms. But when he follows his new friend across the planet to a remote earthship in Taos, bizarre incidents begin unfolding and Matthew’s real nature reveals itself: he’s a manipulative monster embroiled in a strange cult. And Jamie finds himself at the centre a disturbing psychological nightmare as they seize the opportunity to recruit a new member. Pushed to his limits, lost in a shifting sagebrush landscape, can Jamie trust anyone to help him? And will he ever see home again?
When Jamie meets Matthew in Soho, he’s drawn to his new-age charms. But when he follows his new friend across the planet to a remote earthship in Taos, bizarre incidents begin unfolding and Matthew’s real nature reveals itself: he’s a manipulative monster embroiled in a strange cult. And Jamie finds himself at the centre a disturbing psychological nightmare as they seize the opportunity to recruit a new member. Pushed to his limits, lost in a shifting sagebrush landscape, can Jamie trust anyone to help him? And will he ever see home again?
160 pages, Paperback
Published April 4, 2022
About the author
Justin David
20 books94 followersJUSTIN DAVID is a writer and artist living and working in East London. After graduating from the MA Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College he completed a London novel, ‘The Pharmacist’, set in Shoreditch, about pleasure seekers derailed and looking for love in the wrong place.
His debut novella, The Pharmacist, will be released on June 1st by SALT Publishing as one of the first acquisitions in their Modern Dreams series.
Justin teaches and consults in the Arts in London and has advised the education department of the National Gallery on their schools provision. He is also a regular speaker on their Take One Picture programme.
His writing has appeared in numerous magazines, including Beige Magazine, Gay Times and short story anthologies: ‘The Next Wave’, Millivres, 2001, ‘City Secrets’, Crocus Books, 2002,‘Polari Online Magazine’, 2009, ‘Even More Tonto Short Stories’, Tonto, 2010. He has read at Royal Festival Hall for Paul Burston’s gay literary salon, Polari.
His photographic works have appeared on the pages of many magazines including: Time Out, Beige, Out There, Gay Times, Attitude, QX, GlitterWolf, Fluid, Pink Paper, Muso and Classical Music Magazine.
His debut novella, The Pharmacist, will be released on June 1st by SALT Publishing as one of the first acquisitions in their Modern Dreams series.
Justin teaches and consults in the Arts in London and has advised the education department of the National Gallery on their schools provision. He is also a regular speaker on their Take One Picture programme.
His writing has appeared in numerous magazines, including Beige Magazine, Gay Times and short story anthologies: ‘The Next Wave’, Millivres, 2001, ‘City Secrets’, Crocus Books, 2002,‘Polari Online Magazine’, 2009, ‘Even More Tonto Short Stories’, Tonto, 2010. He has read at Royal Festival Hall for Paul Burston’s gay literary salon, Polari.
His photographic works have appeared on the pages of many magazines including: Time Out, Beige, Out There, Gay Times, Attitude, QX, GlitterWolf, Fluid, Pink Paper, Muso and Classical Music Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 28, 2025
This was a short and quite kitsch read from Justin David.
Having read his earlier work Tales of the Suburbs: first Welston then the World concerning the same character Jamie, I had bought this book alongside the first, which incidentally I found a little underwhelming.
This is an enjoyable but empty read in the same way that fast food tastes great but ultimately leaves you feeling hungry an hour or so later. Jamie's character is quintessentially Northern with the stoic Northern mother and "soft but nice" Northern Nan! Matthew is caricatured as the wannabe spiritual guru with accompanying mumus, kaftans, joss sticks and coriander (which apparently is a luxury exotic item in the North!) The "adventure" in the South West USA is well written and has some interesting elements as well as gorgeous descriptions of the New Mexico and Taos skyline and desert landscapes.
Altogether though, this book for me can't be more than 2 stars. I read most of in the bath today and found myself drifting off, thinking more about needing to shave my yeti legs than thinking about the story in hand! It was ok but instantly forgettable.
Having read his earlier work Tales of the Suburbs: first Welston then the World concerning the same character Jamie, I had bought this book alongside the first, which incidentally I found a little underwhelming.
This is an enjoyable but empty read in the same way that fast food tastes great but ultimately leaves you feeling hungry an hour or so later. Jamie's character is quintessentially Northern with the stoic Northern mother and "soft but nice" Northern Nan! Matthew is caricatured as the wannabe spiritual guru with accompanying mumus, kaftans, joss sticks and coriander (which apparently is a luxury exotic item in the North!) The "adventure" in the South West USA is well written and has some interesting elements as well as gorgeous descriptions of the New Mexico and Taos skyline and desert landscapes.
Altogether though, this book for me can't be more than 2 stars. I read most of in the bath today and found myself drifting off, thinking more about needing to shave my yeti legs than thinking about the story in hand! It was ok but instantly forgettable.
October 2, 2025
i mean. not sure what i was supposed to make of this
April 15, 2022
A dream holiday to the USA morphs into a bizarre odyssey into the unknown
I first came across indie literary publisher Inkandescent back in 2018 when I reviewed Bartholomew Bennett’s deliciously creepy novella The Pale Ones and since then they have released an impressive range of fiction, plays, poetry and short stories which often champion gay and other underrepresented voices. Kissing the Lizard first appeared in 2020, but due to the negative impact Covid-19 had on traditional book releases it is now receiving a welcome rerelease. Kissing the Lizard is in fact a prequel to The Pharmacist (which I have also read), but you can enjoy into this new work without having read the other, actually, you might fancy reading The Pharmacist after this as it stars one of the support characters.
Kissing the Lizard has the subtitle “In the desert, no one can hear you, queen” which gives the impression that this might reside at the campier end of gay fiction, but it was not like that at all and although it was in parts very funny, plays it relatively straight. Initially set in the late 1990s Soho area of London, within a few pages Justin David effortlessly recreates the vibe of that era which I remember very well with my weekly pilgrimages down Berwick Street for my music fixes from the Selectadisc and Sister Ray music shops!
I am a huge fan of novellas and the sheer richness of quality in the horror genre these days is simply staggering and although Kissing the Lizard is some distance from your standard horror offering, it’s edgy and bizarre second half is guaranteed to open your eyes. Lead character Jamie finds himself stranded, in the middle of nowhere/New Mexico, when the plot morphs from coming-of-age drama into something decidedly more sinister. I read all 162-pages in a single one-night sitting and thoroughly enjoyed laughing about it at work the next day with a colleague, replaying some of its many memorable and strangely unsettling scenes. It is blessed with a terrific balance of drama, low key threat and paranoia which is all cleverly built around the insecurities of the very naive (but equally engaging) central character.
Jamie was one of the major strengths of Kissing the Lizard, who has recently finished an art degree but finds himself working in a supermarket. Undiagnosed disappointment clings to him and he somehow feels he has missed out on the London college ‘experience’ and has boomeranged back up north to his parents as he can’t afford the rent in London. In the relatively recent past, he has revealed to his parents he is gay, although they are accepting, there are unpleasant comments from the wider family. His mother was very funny and their dynamics were amusing with Jamie trying to find his way in life without much success, with the added pressure of not wanting to let anybody down. Jamie was a sensitive guy and you will really feel for him when the dream holiday turns into a nightmare and you can almost hear his mum trumping “I told you so” in the background.
In its first half Kissing the Lizard beautifully captures the London experience; the lack of money, to crappy flats and the right of the young to make their own mistakes. The story kicks off when Jamie rents a (very cheap) room in the house of the older Matthew and quickly falls under the spell of the seemingly sophisticated new age friend who is never short of an opinion. Thinking his life has taken an interesting upswing, Matthew introduces him to new people, the promise of an exciting job arrives and before long he is invited to join his friend in New Mexico for a month-long holiday.
I do not want to say too much about what goes on in New Mexico, where Jamie finds himself isolated and in the grip of a weird organisation. It would have been very easy for Justin David to at this point drop into cliché cult mode, but instead he skilfully avoids this and paints a very plausible scenario and if the book was longer I would have enjoyed reading more about these oddballs and what they believed in. There were some outstanding scenes here, none better than the very vulnerable and desperate Jamie feeding the last of his coins into a phone box to hear either the reassuring voice of his mother or boyfriend. The manner in which Jamie was made to feel uncomfortable oozed from the page as he psychologically weakens and wishes he never left home.
Whilst coming-of-age stories are often teen driven Justin David cleverly shifts the narrative up a few years; as for many the transition from university to first professional job, as it is for Jamie, is just as challenging. Look back to your own early twenties; most of us will have a Matthew type character in our proverbial closet! The naivety of being young and impressionable is beautifully captured in this clever blend of black comedy and edgy unpredictable drama which is built around memorable characters and underlying free floating anxiety which takes the reader far out of their comfort zone along with Jamie. Kissing the Lizard was a highly enjoyable blend of genres and weird fiction from a publishing house which is one to watch out for.
I first came across indie literary publisher Inkandescent back in 2018 when I reviewed Bartholomew Bennett’s deliciously creepy novella The Pale Ones and since then they have released an impressive range of fiction, plays, poetry and short stories which often champion gay and other underrepresented voices. Kissing the Lizard first appeared in 2020, but due to the negative impact Covid-19 had on traditional book releases it is now receiving a welcome rerelease. Kissing the Lizard is in fact a prequel to The Pharmacist (which I have also read), but you can enjoy into this new work without having read the other, actually, you might fancy reading The Pharmacist after this as it stars one of the support characters.
Kissing the Lizard has the subtitle “In the desert, no one can hear you, queen” which gives the impression that this might reside at the campier end of gay fiction, but it was not like that at all and although it was in parts very funny, plays it relatively straight. Initially set in the late 1990s Soho area of London, within a few pages Justin David effortlessly recreates the vibe of that era which I remember very well with my weekly pilgrimages down Berwick Street for my music fixes from the Selectadisc and Sister Ray music shops!
I am a huge fan of novellas and the sheer richness of quality in the horror genre these days is simply staggering and although Kissing the Lizard is some distance from your standard horror offering, it’s edgy and bizarre second half is guaranteed to open your eyes. Lead character Jamie finds himself stranded, in the middle of nowhere/New Mexico, when the plot morphs from coming-of-age drama into something decidedly more sinister. I read all 162-pages in a single one-night sitting and thoroughly enjoyed laughing about it at work the next day with a colleague, replaying some of its many memorable and strangely unsettling scenes. It is blessed with a terrific balance of drama, low key threat and paranoia which is all cleverly built around the insecurities of the very naive (but equally engaging) central character.
Jamie was one of the major strengths of Kissing the Lizard, who has recently finished an art degree but finds himself working in a supermarket. Undiagnosed disappointment clings to him and he somehow feels he has missed out on the London college ‘experience’ and has boomeranged back up north to his parents as he can’t afford the rent in London. In the relatively recent past, he has revealed to his parents he is gay, although they are accepting, there are unpleasant comments from the wider family. His mother was very funny and their dynamics were amusing with Jamie trying to find his way in life without much success, with the added pressure of not wanting to let anybody down. Jamie was a sensitive guy and you will really feel for him when the dream holiday turns into a nightmare and you can almost hear his mum trumping “I told you so” in the background.
In its first half Kissing the Lizard beautifully captures the London experience; the lack of money, to crappy flats and the right of the young to make their own mistakes. The story kicks off when Jamie rents a (very cheap) room in the house of the older Matthew and quickly falls under the spell of the seemingly sophisticated new age friend who is never short of an opinion. Thinking his life has taken an interesting upswing, Matthew introduces him to new people, the promise of an exciting job arrives and before long he is invited to join his friend in New Mexico for a month-long holiday.
I do not want to say too much about what goes on in New Mexico, where Jamie finds himself isolated and in the grip of a weird organisation. It would have been very easy for Justin David to at this point drop into cliché cult mode, but instead he skilfully avoids this and paints a very plausible scenario and if the book was longer I would have enjoyed reading more about these oddballs and what they believed in. There were some outstanding scenes here, none better than the very vulnerable and desperate Jamie feeding the last of his coins into a phone box to hear either the reassuring voice of his mother or boyfriend. The manner in which Jamie was made to feel uncomfortable oozed from the page as he psychologically weakens and wishes he never left home.
Whilst coming-of-age stories are often teen driven Justin David cleverly shifts the narrative up a few years; as for many the transition from university to first professional job, as it is for Jamie, is just as challenging. Look back to your own early twenties; most of us will have a Matthew type character in our proverbial closet! The naivety of being young and impressionable is beautifully captured in this clever blend of black comedy and edgy unpredictable drama which is built around memorable characters and underlying free floating anxiety which takes the reader far out of their comfort zone along with Jamie. Kissing the Lizard was a highly enjoyable blend of genres and weird fiction from a publishing house which is one to watch out for.
March 12, 2022
Kissing the Lizard
Author: Justin David
Publisher: Inkandescent.co.uk
Page count: 162pp
Described as "part creepy coming-of-age story, part black-comedy, set partly in buzzing 1990s London and partly in barren New Mexico wildlands," Kissing the Lizard is about Jamie, lured by the promise of excitement by Matthew, monstrous leader of a new-age cult.
Through Jamie, disillusioned, young, gay writer, working at a small supermarket, David captures the spirit of a nineties summer in Soho, London; the imagery woven with such ease, you can almost smell the burning asphalt.
I'll pre-cursor this by saying I'm a 'child' of the nineties. In this book, I feel at home.
Adult me can't help snickering as Billy and Jamie chat, Jamie's lamenting how little he's achieved by twenty-two, that he wants to have written his first novel by thirty, hating living with his mom in the middle of nowhere and being fascinated by UFOs and all that psychic stuff.
This novella is like a time capsule for '90s youth and ambition, but of course, Jamie has real battles to fight with being gay; the rest of us had it easy in comparison.
In fact, during scenes with his working class family, we get a real feel of the bigotry experienced in particular during this period and the heights of Advanced HIV; which unfortunately continues today around the world. Those scenes are unpleasant but necessary to the narrative. Yet we also have a fierce protector in Jamie's mom, Gloria, trapped in her own household.
Her family's pinions might be narrow-minded, and she might be scared of change, but a big part of her still recognises that something is not quite right about Matthew.
The further the story goes, and the more embroiled in Matthew's life that Jamie gets, the weirder the story gets; from a flat-share in London to a geodome in New Mexico.
Matthew becomes a creepier, scarier figure and though we can see it, Jamie's own fear of being trapped in his West Midlands home, and achieving little, puts the blinkers on him. He's blinded by the possibilities offered by his faux-bourgeois 'friend' who manipulates him and whittles away Jamie's confidence.
It's an intriguing book, genuinely scary in seeing Jamie's descent into paranoia, dependence and fear.
The final denouement, revealed in documentary style, is where it really hits hard.
Fantastic imagery, metaphors and similes abound to deliver a mind-bending journey of self discovery.
Terrifically written, David reminds of the dearly-departed and loved Joel Lane.
Author: Justin David
Publisher: Inkandescent.co.uk
Page count: 162pp
Described as "part creepy coming-of-age story, part black-comedy, set partly in buzzing 1990s London and partly in barren New Mexico wildlands," Kissing the Lizard is about Jamie, lured by the promise of excitement by Matthew, monstrous leader of a new-age cult.
Through Jamie, disillusioned, young, gay writer, working at a small supermarket, David captures the spirit of a nineties summer in Soho, London; the imagery woven with such ease, you can almost smell the burning asphalt.
I'll pre-cursor this by saying I'm a 'child' of the nineties. In this book, I feel at home.
Adult me can't help snickering as Billy and Jamie chat, Jamie's lamenting how little he's achieved by twenty-two, that he wants to have written his first novel by thirty, hating living with his mom in the middle of nowhere and being fascinated by UFOs and all that psychic stuff.
This novella is like a time capsule for '90s youth and ambition, but of course, Jamie has real battles to fight with being gay; the rest of us had it easy in comparison.
In fact, during scenes with his working class family, we get a real feel of the bigotry experienced in particular during this period and the heights of Advanced HIV; which unfortunately continues today around the world. Those scenes are unpleasant but necessary to the narrative. Yet we also have a fierce protector in Jamie's mom, Gloria, trapped in her own household.
Her family's pinions might be narrow-minded, and she might be scared of change, but a big part of her still recognises that something is not quite right about Matthew.
The further the story goes, and the more embroiled in Matthew's life that Jamie gets, the weirder the story gets; from a flat-share in London to a geodome in New Mexico.
Matthew becomes a creepier, scarier figure and though we can see it, Jamie's own fear of being trapped in his West Midlands home, and achieving little, puts the blinkers on him. He's blinded by the possibilities offered by his faux-bourgeois 'friend' who manipulates him and whittles away Jamie's confidence.
It's an intriguing book, genuinely scary in seeing Jamie's descent into paranoia, dependence and fear.
The final denouement, revealed in documentary style, is where it really hits hard.
Fantastic imagery, metaphors and similes abound to deliver a mind-bending journey of self discovery.
Terrifically written, David reminds of the dearly-departed and loved Joel Lane.
February 6, 2022
I loved this book, it’s so atmospheric and uplifting.
May 5, 2024
I really liked this for the most part but the ending just kind of fizzles out. It didn't end up where I expected it, though, which was a nice surprise.
March 20, 2025
The Jamie character is very likeable and realistic, i enjoyed seeing him pop up here having read some of the other books already like The Pharmacist
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews