An Unseen Attraction (Sins of the Cities, #1)

by K.J. Charles

He’d always disliked people doing that. Look me in the eyes, boy! had been a constant refrain at school, but they said the eyes were the windows to the soul, and Clem didn’t feel comfortable peering into people’s windows.

autistic?

Clem’s father and schoolmasters had shouted at him countless times for changing the subject and wandering from the point,

okay he’s def neurodivergent. maybe autistic, maybe ADHD

Clem didn’t seem to have whatever ability it was that let other people “just tell,” and it felt as if there was an entire world of communication going on at a pitch he couldn’t hear.

really giving autism lols

Polly shared a room with her friend Alice from the milliner’s and went out with her, dressed up, on their free evenings and days off; neither was interested in gentlemen friends, and

so true!!

Two magpies perched on a twisted branch, one bowing to the other, a glittering ring in its beak.

okay this is obviously a reference to the magpie lord (an engagement ring maybe??)

And there were few things so lonely as being the only man in a crowd of laughing people who didn’t get the joke.

Clem was not a man you could read like a book, or if you could, the book was in an unfamiliar typeface, with no page numbers.

Rowley could well imagine exasperated schoolmasters telling him to do just that, to think and speak and be like everybody else. As if the world needed more people like all the people it already had.

“Most people think that nobody should make a fuss until it’s their own comfort at stake, at which point they will bring the roof down shrieking about it.”

“I pluck the rose,” Clem said. “And love it more than tongue can speak— Then the good minute goes.”

but really about how everything changes, everything’s fleeting. That you can pick a rose but you can’t preserve it, you see.”

for real for real

Clem had moved to this part of London because it was so mixed. There were Jews, Italians, Indians, Germans, Arabs and Africans and Chinese and more, all going about their own business like everybody else.

we love to see it

“Slowly is very nearly my name,” Rowley assured him.

actually true… did she name him this just for this joke🤨

that was the best gamahuching I think I’ve ever had in my life,

i do love this ridiculous word

He was twenty years older than Clem,

oh jeez

“Rowley, there are lots of people who think I’m worth looking at. Not so many who think I’m worth listening to. Not like you.”

Mr. Rillington shook his head and ejaculated, “More trouble!” then shut his door with a bang.

using ejaculated to mean yelled is a WILD choice

You could breed especially pretty specimens and train them as lap-dragons for ladies.”

this feels like a terry pratchett reference

He’d spent his life carefully not looking into an abyss of rage like the pit of hellfire he’d so often been told awaited pagans, because if he ever really looked, he feared he might be angry forever.

“Only, it sounds awfully like me telling you what to do, and you just having to take it. I feel as though I’d be using you for my own pleasure, and not doing anything about you, and you’d have to wait for ages.” “Mmm.” That came out rather high-pitched. “Oh, well,” Clem said, straightening up. “Life is hard.”

“For heaven’s sake, of course one can tell. A man of any worldly experience knows at once when a woman has indulged in sinful intimacies, and she was thoroughly debauched.

th fucking hypocrisy in this. “i’ve had a sex a bunch so i could tell she had too. ugh the whore” bruhhhhh

“No. It is imperative that the page from the register be destroyed.

fuckkkkk himmmmmm

You always say you’re nothing special to look at, but I do think you should remember that you can’t see very well. My eyes are perfect,” he added, in a mock-superior tone that made Rowley snort.

‘What matter to me if their star is a world? Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.’ ”

“My star,” Clem said, and bent to kiss him.

“You clumsy oaf! My trousers! Get me a cloth at once, a wet one. They will be ruined.”

is he trying to poison him or smth......

But at least he was alone with Rowley. At least Rowley could hold him and tell him he was safe, and wonderful, and beloved. It was all they had against the darkness, and maybe it was enough.