The Blue Place

Title: The Blue Place
Author: Nicola Griffith
Publication: Harper Perennial 1999
Rating:3.5 stars

I recently deviated from my list by reading Nicola Griffith’s The Blue Place. It is a suspenseful tale about drug cartels and corruption, told by a strong, beautiful female protagonist kicking ass and taking names (pardon the cliché). I haven’t read a suspense novel in years (circa 1998 when I devoured every Nancy Drew and Mary Higgins Clark book I could get my hands on). Now, I tend to go for the dramatic, overly literary books and suspenseful TV like Criminal Minds.

This was a great book to break up my usual reading habits. It is a dangerous love story seamlessly integrated into a thrilling drama. When I say dangerous I mean that there are literally bullets flying, but the love story itself is dangerous in defying “the norm.”

Reading Giovanni’s Room forced me to realize that the books I typically read have straight protagonists, which wasn’t too surprising. So, I got to thinking there has to be this whole other sub-genre of fiction that I have yet to tap into. And there is! The Blue Place is the first of many in this new-to-me genre that I will read I’m sure.

I went a little crazy on amazon and bought Proud Man and Cities of the Interior and The World According to Garp. I also just found this site, which lists 100 of the best lesbian and gay novels.

Now I’m self-conscious that my list is insensitive not only to homosexual lit, but all minorities including non-white people, female authors, and feminists. It looks like, I’ll be replacing (or adding?) a couple of things. And the list “100 more books I want to read” begins.