Man-Eating Typewriter: Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023

by Richard Milward

Set at the fag-end of the 60s at the moment when Swinging London is starting to take on a darker hue in the wake of Charles Manson's murders, and framed as a novel within a novel published by a seedy Piccadilly-based publisher of pulp fiction, MAN-EATING TYPEWRITER is a homage to the great oulipo experiments in fiction. It is the story of a psychopath called Raymond Novak and his untimely demise told entirely in 'polari' - a language developed and used mainly amongst the metropolitan homosexual community in the time when being gay was still a criminal offence. From a love affair with a Barbary Ape on the Rock of Gibraltar to erotic cabaret in Paris and unreliable adventures with Madam Ovary, Raymond's mother in the bombed-out ruins of Blitzed London, MAN-EATING TYPEWRITER is an act of seductive sedition by a writer with unfathomable literary talent and chutzpah. Wild, transgressive, erotic, offensive and resolutely uncompromising, this marks the return of a writer who is out there on an island of his own making; a book that will be talked about, celebrated and misunderstood for decades.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Literary Fiction, Queer, British Literature, Audiobook, Gay

Kindle Edition

Published March 16, 2023

About the author

Richard Milward was born in Middlesbrough in 1984. His debut novel, Apples, was published in 2007, and he recently passed his degree in Fine Art from Byam Shaw at Central St Martins in London. He currently lives in Middlesbrough.

Essay on his writing: http://www.faber.co.uk/article/2009/2...

Reviews

[Katia N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel has a great start with a lot of fresh, exciting elements such as a brilliant monstrosity of the main character and exuberant use Polari language (or a version of it bravely adopted, adapted and complemented by the author). Although gruesome in parts, it was hilariously funny in parts. Under all the playfulness, the book comments on very serious, sometimes grave social issues. It also successfully submerges its reader into the turbulent atmosphere of the mid-last century, especially the 5os and 60s. However, unfortunately it has kind of imploded under its own bulk. Pale Fire is a clear inspiration. And for those of us who has read it, it might seem kind of clear were it was all going. But it would not be a problem per se. The problem for me was that such an elegant conceit would not withstand the amount of material and plot twists Milward tried to pack into it. As a result, the "fire" is significantly "paler" compared to as it should have been with such an effort and such a talented author.

Still, I will read everything he writes next. And it prompted me to re-read "Pale Fire" pronto:-)

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shortlisted for the 2023 Goldsmiths Prize

I am an ugly man, a meese meshigena-omi, but a fashionable omi. And soon to be a molto famous omi. Lell my lapper.

The main narrative of Richard Milward's Man-Eating Typewriter is told in Polari, or rather a somewhat bastardized and expanded version, with various French words added in, spoken by Raymond Marianne Novak, who writes a letter to the Fitzrovia based counter-culture small independent publisher Glass Eye Press (we're committed to publishing pocketbooks that are as stimulating for the senses as they are cheap to print and easy to secrete about one's person). It is October 1969, the Tate–LaBianca murders took place two months earlier, but ae yet to be pinned on the Manson Family, and Novak proposes a deal with the publisher - he will send them instalments of his autobiography dealing with the planning of a spectacular ('fantabulosa') crime he and his associates are planning in July 1970:

Esteemed publisher of glistening livers, myself and my devotees cordially invite you to join with us in this forthcoming fame. We hereby offer you an una-in-a-lavvytime lucrative share in the high-flying, hallucinating, espressoschlumphing, pâté-nibbling, jibbering, both-way-swinging, reprogramming, reverse-servo-lathering, Polarising, paranoid, cobblestoned, mono-bothering, line-crossing, cross-dressing, omi-jarrying, lav-hammering Raymond Novak Experience!

In duey-chenta setta-daitcha-heksa junos (276 days, for those without the lingo), myself and my devotees will commit a fantastic crime, a fantabulosa crime that will revolt the mond. My nom will be on the oyster-levers of every daffy jittery civvy as news breaks of this dazzling atrocity. My eek splattered across the cover of every inky and glossy on the newsstand. The Establishment brought to its lally-caps. The system left thoroughly smashed and charvered!

These instalments comprise much of the novel, but they are included alongside footnotes from the staff of Glass Eye Press which initially simply note how and when each missive from Novak is received, but increasingly take over the narrative, as it becomes clear that Novak's activities and aims are a little closer to home than the press had realised - the two also interact as the press realise there are coded messages hidden in the text.

The Polari in the novel is actually relatively straightforward to read (see the examples above) and the bravura linguistic invention enhances rather than slows the reading experience (although the 500+ pages make it an overly drawn-out one).

Novak's own plans and tales, and increasingly the footnoted story as well, are exuberantly uncompromising - this is not a novel for the faint-hearted or easily (or even difficultly) offended as it often veers head-long into the gratuitous (with a sense of: not offended yet - OK try this for size)

But the prose is also noticeable for its inventive exuberance - e.g. Novak's costumes: Backstage, Novak wears full-eek pancake, innumerable beauty morsos, gross red liberty bonnet, gold-worked tropical tuxedo, sharkskin bell-bottoms and go-go stampers. He nellies the mistress-of-ceremonies clear her gargler in the auditorium next-bor as he attaches his ear-fakes.

An artistic rendition inspired by that and some other descriptions of what Novak wears can be found in .Cent Magazine.

Literary influences abound- some acknowledged by 'Novak' and others by Milward - including Richard III (Billy Shaker's Dicky Trey), Madame Bovary, the Surrealist manifestos,Jean Genet's Journal du voleur, Les Chants de Maldoror, Burgess's Clockwork Orange, Nabakov's Pale Fire and Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter about the Manson Murders.

And Milward managed to maintain by interest to the final pages as the tension mounts towards the denouement. Rather cleverly as well explanation that the story reaches is then questioned in an Afterword by one of the few survivors of the bloody events, pointing out several nagging inconsistencies. This felt like a great take on the root of most conspiracy theories - particularly those where, as here none of the supporting characters are around to explain themselves - there is always something in any explanation, even if as close as we can get to the truth, of any true story of this type that remains unexplained or inconsistent.

But it also points to another explanation, leaving the reader to ponder whether an entirely different story may have unfolded before their eyes, although one that leaves as many questions. That Merritt is Novak all along and indeed this may be primarily about creating a best-seller. But then, for example, why and how did he bomb Victor Value either?

Impressively done and a great choice by the Goldsmiths judges. Their citation expresses the novel perfectly:

In this extraordinary technical feat, Richard Milward plunges us into the dizzying landscape of 1960’s London with the story of Raymond Novak, an anarchist promising to commit the crime of the century, and the publishers hoping to capitalize on his violence.

With remarkable command over the Polari slang that dances, spins, spits and slashes its way across the page, Milward has created a very rare beast of a book; one that is propulsive, relevant, outrageous, and often alarmingly beautiful. Here is a novel that lays bare the depravity of human impulse, whilst testing the limits of language and form with masterful ease and reckless glee.

Man-Eating Typewriter emerges as a refreshing example of the most fun a person could have on a page and has all the transgressive energy of a cult classic in the making.

But I will round down to 3 stars for personal taste - it's multiples longer than I would have preferred and the pay-off from the extra pages doesn't follow, and at times gratuitous.

Postscript - the author does address this last issue (although not the novel's padded length) in his New Statesman interview:

Certain parts of the novel are there to reflect the brutality of pre-Abortion Act, pre-Sexual Offences Act Britain, as well as the horror of 1960s/1970s cult predators like Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Andreas Baader, who heavily influenced the Novak character. The violence towards and exploitation of women by Manson, Jones et al is shocking in the books I was reading, and all the more disturbing in that it was part of a supposed mission to build a utopian future. It felt important to reflect in the novel just how low some people will go to achieve their diabolical, selfish, hypocritical ends.

When I put violence in my work, I want its intensity to be unsettling for the reader, to force a response similar to how it would feel to witness or experience it in reality.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bona for the Most, but Vairy Niche
A review of the White Rabbit paperback edition (February 4, 2025) with reference to the Kindle edition for status updates and quotes, of the original White Rabbit hardcover (March 16, 2023).

We're all in the gutter but some of us are ogling the sparkles.

Review in Polari
Bona read that I vada, I jolly enjoyed — a novel-within-a-novel, right? The main omi is scribbling his own auto in long Polari while the publishing casa chirps in plain English down the footnotes. It shoots from an orphaned kiddie life to a shipboard stint to setting up a cult in London in the Swinging 60s. It ends in a proper nasty crime and a last vada-pace all the way down to Morocco with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert. So I give it five sparkles for the sheer graft and dedication to writing 500+ pages of Polari, but shave it to four sparkles for that rotten finale.

I vadad this 544 page liver for the 2025 Long Books Challenge with several fabulosa GR pals.

Tanks to pal Liisa who kindly gave me this book, vardaing my fancy for scribbling in experimental invented dialect or antiquated English in works like Riddley Walker (Riddleyspeak), A Clockwork Orange (Nadsat) and A Dead Man in Deptford (Elizabethan English).

Review in English
I mostly enjoyed this read which is done as a sort of novel within a novel. The main character is supposedly writing their autobiography (in an extended version of Polari) while the publishing house he is sending the chapters to is commenting in English in the footnotes. It goes from an orphaned childhood to a life at sea to setting up a cult in London during the Swinging 60s. It culminates in a rather despicable crime though and a final chase down to Morocco which ends with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert. So it is 5 stars for its sheer ambition and dedication to writing 500+ pages of Polari but tempered down to 4 stars due to the disturbing and somewhat unresolved finale.

I read this 544 page book for the 2025 Long Books Challenge with several fabulous GR friends.

My thanks to friend Liisa who kindly gifted me this book knowing my enthusiasm for writing in experimental invented dialect or antiquated English in works such as Riddley Walker (Riddleyspeak), A Clockwork Orange (Nadsat) and A Dead Man in Deptford (Elizabethan English).

Soundtrack

Most of the chapter synopses in Man-Eating Typewriter are accompanied by a song selection. The author assembled a related playlist on Spotify which you can listen to here. The selection is described as "featuring a whole slew of 60s Yé-Yé tracks mentioned in the book, as well as a few additional oddities thrown in for good glossolalic measure."

Trivia and Links
Man-Eating Typewriter was shortlisted for the 2023 Goldsmiths Prize, which is awarded annually to a British or Irish piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form." Read the Goldsmiths Jury citation here. The 2023 Prize was eventually won by Benjamin Myers for Cuddy.

Read further background and critical responses, including an excerpt from the book, at the author's website here.

Related reading: The author's own final footnote references several books by Paul Baker as being useful in the writing of the book. Those were likely Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang (2002) and Hello Sailor!: The hidden history of gay life at sea (2003).

[Paul Dembina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right up my street. Set in the 1960s, a disreputable small publisher starts receiving chapters purporting to be the memoirs of a very odd character threatening to commit an atrocity on a specific future date, the race is on to track him down.

The character in question (one Raymond Novak) has written his text using Polari plus other assorted fragments of French, Yiddish, German plus other stuff I probably missed. This isn't as hard to read as it might seem and Novak is very much an oddball with a very warped view of the world.

But perhaps all is not what it seems?

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inside flap describes this book as Pale Fire meets A Clockwork Orange, and that was all that was needed to convince me to pick it up. Up front, let me say that the formal structure and style of this book is incredible. This novel is written in a language called Polari, a slang language that was particularly popular within the gay subculture in 1960s Britain. While it’s a bit intimidating at first, like Burgess’ Nadsat in A Clockwork Orange, you learn how to navigate it quite quickly.

The conceit of Man-Eating Typewriter is this: the editors of a small press discover a typescript written in a strange language on their office’s doorstep one morning, with a note explaining that more chapters will follow in the coming weeks. All the editors need to do is publish the work. Alongside the typescript comes the promise of a “fantabulosa crime that will revolt the mond” to br carried out by the author himself in a few months. Confused, scared, and excited, the editors begin working on the manuscript.

What follows in Man-Eating Typewriter is this typescript written by a certain Raymond Novak, alongside the editors' footnotes, as they work through the perplexing and disturbing memoir. In some ways, the novel is a detective story, as the editors chase the mystery writer through his own words, attempting to figure out who exactly he is and what exactly he wants.

With clear allusions to Joyce, Chaucer, André Breton, etc., Milward creates in a world-within-a-world using a language-within-a-language. It’s at times absurd, surreal, and meta. The frame narrative of editors working on the manuscript is really interesting, as they note literary references, provide background information, make jokes (often at the reader’s expense!), and long-windedly extrapolate on the literary merits of the manuscript. I found the use of footnotes fascinating and I’d love to read more books that use this form.

The use of Polari is fascinating — I wasn’t really aware of the history of that language. Milward has such a command over it and it really helps him re-create the underground queer world of 1960s London. Novak is, by his own admission, deeply influenced by Dadism and Surrealism, and his language reflects this as he writes his “anarcho-surrealist” memoir.

All of that said, while I really admire the experimental prose, this novel, for me, often falls victim to style over substance. The plot does come together, especially in the second half, but I found myself caring less about what was happening and more about the sentence-level writing, which is, to be clear, very inventive and fun. So while it’s a bit too long and the prose-style is often more interesting than the plot, Man-eating Typewriter is still a “fantabulosa” literary adventure.

[Marc Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRE-M...

[Andrew Crofts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I understand it can be a lazy option to draw comparisons with other books, and possibly galling for the author, but in this case, it might be useful for potential readers to get an idea what they are in for.

If you enjoyed Perfume by Patrick Süskin or American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, then chances are you will love this book. Likewise, if you can remember enjoying Dead Babies by Martin Amis and The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. If you enjoy alternative worlds created by the likes of Mervyn Peake, or films like Clockwork Orange, Silence of the Lambs, Withnail and I and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, you will also be okay.

You may also be reminded of characters in classics like Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell and Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham, and there are even hints of Proust’s, In Search of Lost Time.

Anyone who has worked at the seedier end of publishing over the last half century, or who enjoyed the seedier aspects of “Swinging London”, in and around sixties Soho and Fitzrovia, will be very happy in these pages. If they are old enough to remember Julian and his friend, Sandy, from Round the Horne, it will help to get their ears accustomed to the fluent Polari.

If you fall into any of the above categories, this book is an absolute joy from end to end, if you do not … well, you have been warned.

[endrju · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in Gay's the Word bookshop to remind me of my first trip to London so I really did not want it to disappoint me. And it certainly did not. The novel's got it all - Surrealism, Situationism, Burroughs, Chaucer (?), May 68, (failed) utopia, madness, ridiculousness, various kinds of disgusting-ness, (post)colonialism - and packed in a style of an exploitation B movie worthy of the most underground infamy at that. Think really early John Waters, like Mondo Trasho or Mutiple Maniacs. I've been accidentally (re)watching Waters these days and the novel does have some of his borderline tedious insistence on taboo-breaking. The bonkers narrative is only propelled further into complete craziness by the Polari, the use of which should not deter anyone as it's picked up quite quickly along the merry way into the Void. I just wish I started reading the book while in London.

[Andrew Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book made me regret reading The Appeal by Janice Hallett even more because it kept reminding me of that 😂

Still, I sort of got over that by the end and enjoyed. Not entirely sure how it ended, so hopefully somebody will post some spoilers.

Enjoyed the 60s bits, won’t fancy a seafood supper for a while, and love the books that the dodgy publishing house put out! And the whole book in Polari (and whatever else) was an achievement…

[Andrew Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never been a fan of the descriptive platitude “like nothing I’ve ever read before,” but I’m not sure what else to say about a novel written almost entirely in Polari, a slang I’m unlikely to ever encounter again. While it dragged at times, simply put, Man-Eating Typewriter is a fun and darkly funny (and also just plain dark) romp through late 60’s London that will keep you engaged from start to finish. Highly recommend

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF.

But it's good.

The prose is amazing. One of the blurbs describes it as reading a bit like Clockwork Orange, which it does. Took me a while to realise it's written in a real world language, which actually deflated me a little.. But that, and the footnotes, are its selling feature.

Here's the thing: After 150 pages of it, whilst I still thought it was its selling feature, I didn't want to go through another few hundred pages. And the prose was the sales feature--the underlying plot just wasn't grabbing me. So I settled on putting it down rather than taking another two weeks wading through it--reading should be for pleasure, not like a job. But, heh, you might like the plot better than I did.

So I gave it two star just because I DNF'd. Maybe if you want to invest more hardwork, you'll get more out of it than me.

[Micke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantaboulosa!

[Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Objectively crazy book. Quite enjoyed the beginning and the end, the middle got a little overwhelming and boring at the same time. Definitely worth the read. I imagine it’s great on re-read…unfortunately that will never happen.

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

blows up the Idea of the novel and language oh my god !! but unnecessarily long, and the end of the book dulls its genius ... nevertheless! awesome!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. Well, well. It's... a queer version of A Clockwork Orange x American Psycho, if someone drugged Terry Pratchett & asked him to do the footnotes.

Like the Curate Omi's eggypeggy - bona in parts (and ultraschvartz in others)... A fantabulosa ride my chovis...

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mad, picaresque, nasty, ebullient adventure set in the late 60s. Man-Eating Typewriter is written almost entirely in Polari, the underground language of sailors and LGBTQ people (homosexuality was still illegal at this time). A half-French oddball anarchist named Raymond Novak delivers a manuscript written in Polari to a London publisher of smut, declaring that he is going to commit a "fantabulosa crime" in a few months' time, and that he will send them, week by week, his memoirs in the lead-up to this event. So we are reading a) Novak's life story along with b) footnotes and clarifications from the editorial team at the publishers. Gradually the team become increasingly embroiled in Novak's world as their staff start to go missing or even become implicated in what is going on.

The memoirs themselves, meanwhile, ricochet from Occupation-era Paris to the humiliations and adventures of the Merchant Navy, to sweltering Tangiers, to the grotty backstreets of London, where Novak's life and aims take a much darker turn. Ultimately this book is a kind of corrective t o the idea of permissive "Swinging London" in the 60s - it wants to probe that idea and reveal what really lay behind the "free love" mantras.

The Polari element was great, and much like A Clockwork Orange or Riddley Walker, it's not as difficult to read as you first imagine, and before long you're pootling along through the text merrily - my internal monologue has been entirely in Polari for the last few days!

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book - the first few pages draw you in instantly and seem to promise a glorious, flamboyant, reckless fist shaken in the face of conformity. But once the main character's narrative got under way, I found it an increasingly wearisome trudge. The story unwinds through a sequence of gruesome scenarios which may or may not give you a delicious frisson of transgression and/or disgust, but never really go anywhere (It feels quite a throwback to the picaresque novels of the 18th century, where the hero journeys along and has a succession of adventures, extricates himself from each of them and pushes on without ever really developing). The narrator writes throughout in Polari (even when recounting the period before he learnt Polari), but it doesn't add much to the prose, because it's not a language but a system of word substitution. Once you've worked out that "efink" means "knife" (backwards) and "eek" means "face" (short for "ecaf"), it just becomes a way of shrinking the character's vocabulary (he only has a couple of dozen words of Polari but he uses them incessantly). I got through 200 pages, hoping for a bit of the variety promised in the opening chapter. But flicking ahead, it looked very much like the remaining 250 pages would be more of the same. I don't like to give up on a book. There's definitely a lot of good ideas in this one and maybe it would have picked up if I'd stuck with it. But I got to my third renewal at the library and realised that if it had taken me two months to get this far I was never going to finish.

[Giulia Citro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a lot of mixed feelings towards this book. It was an intriguing read, but I have to admit, it wasn’t 100% my cup of tea. I didn’t reeeally love it, there were moments when it felt a bit overwhelming, and at times, the plot unnecessarily dragged on. It got a bit lengthy in places, where I found myself thinking “Is this going anywhere?” buuuut I pushed through, because, well, sometimes you’ve got to stick with it to see where it’s headed, right?
That being said, what truly made it interesting for me was the fantabulosa use of Polari… Seriously, it was like a little treasure hunt through the pages. I absolutely loved how the language added a little extra pizazz to the whole story, it gave the book a vibe that was uniquely its own. I picked it up because I'm doing my dissertation on Polari, so I'm getting pretty familiar with the language, even tho Milward took the liberty to reinvent it a tad. Not sure how easy it would be to read for someone who's completely unfamiliar with it, especially for those whose English isn't their first language.
So… I think I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars because while I wasn’t entirely sold on the plot, I’ll admit the Polari aspect really made it worth the read for me. Definitely give it a go if you’re into a quirky mix of language and a very (!) oddball campy narrative. It’s not entirely naff, after all…!!!

[John Hobson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The monstrous Novak, who is at the core of this novel, is a creation to be cherished. Unfortunately, he's lost to us mere readers when Richard decided to do a Finnegan's Wake and bury the story behind a wall of Polari, a long dead gay parlance, plus make up his own words to fill any gaps. We are expected to translate the result. There's no glossary so if you go looking for wisdom online, you'll find Richard often comes up with his own spelling of Polari words just to add to the fun (and is perfectly entitled to do so). I found myself skim reading as a consequence, so a lot of the depth of the story remained locked away by its stylistic decisions. Reading it with a Kenneth Williams sneer does pull you along. At 200 pages I might have had a serious attempt at getting to grips with Polari. however at 530 pages, the conceit wears too thin. Curiously, I think this would work better as a graphic novel were the visual ideas would not need to compete so much with the text.

[Sean Auraist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ran Never Was close as the most stylishly written book on the shortlist for the Goldsmiths Prize for innovative fiction 2023, the strongest shortlist we've looked at this year to date. https://auraist.substack.com/p/goldsm...

Auraist selects the best-written books from prize shortlists and major reviews, and interviews the prose experts who wrote them. ‘I like very much what you are doing. I’ve been giving out about the same problem for years.’ - Paul Lynch, Booker-shortlisted 2023 for Prophet Song.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sprawling (*) unique (*) and transgressive novel which takes place as much, if not more so, in the metafictional asterisked footnotes as in the ingenious text which while written in a re-imagined Polari is surprisingly readable and engaging (even if when nellying the liver I only grasped every other lav).

(*) At 530 pages sprawling and self-indulgent may be more accurate
(*) Although I think Daniel James did it in a more ingenious way (including the use of multi-media and two brilliant follow up volumes) in “The Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas”
(*) Its more deliberately gross-out to the extent I cannot really recommend anyone to read it

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wild ride ändå! Tog sin tid att komma in i det klart speciella språket och helt ärligt accepterade jag att inte förstå allt och bara gled med. Den lyckas ju ändå bygga upp något och jag tycker att de två berättelsedelarna funkar bra, även om det kanske ibland hade varit smartare att lägga vissa förklaringar hos förlaget istället för hos Novak - och kanske låtit bli att förklara vissa saker för mycket, eller kanske introducerat en tredje röst på något sätt. Också lite tråkigt att den handlar om (tillsynes) idédrivna människor men inte riktigt presenterar någon egen idé i slutändan. Spännande.

[Gavin Attridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completely bonkers. The fact it's written in Polari (99% of which is not translated) - with lots of French and German words thrown in too - makes it difficult to read, and I would think nigh-on impossible for anyone that has no Polari. It's bonkers and filthy and depraved but it is funny in parts. It is too long though, and as I said, a very difficult read for non-Polari speakers.

[Bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really wanted to stick with this surreal, funny unusual novel for its rich one liners and vivid descriptions but after 250 I lost momentum and couldn’t muster the desire to see through the remaining 300. Too ambitious.

[Aranka · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was certainly unique - and incredibly challenging for several reasons. It was very interesting, I enjoyed learning (about) Polari, and I feel enriched now that I've finished it, but there were a few scenes I wouldn't mind scrubbing from my memory.

[evelyn]

feels weird to leave this without saying anything but im still taking it all in to be honest. pretty strange, but i say give it a try!

[Ang]

Enjoying but difficult to read on a kindle.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarrely marvelous. It bogs down a bit but keep plugging through the Polari to the finish - well worth it.

[Michael Cook]

DNF - couldn't fully grasp the tone tbh

[Adrienne Olszewska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rip roaring, revolting, fantabulosa