Absolutely, but the mistakes they made along the way were human, and it felt completely raw and I absolutely loved that. Needed more fleshing out, there was brilliant build up in the first half, even up until the last third or so of the book. The book is told from Noah's first person perspective, with the previously mentioned press snippets about Smiling Politely intercut (I very much enjoyed that these were often cut off like real news sites if you weren't a paying member). His infatuation with Dylan is complicated by the fact that Dylan is ‘straight’ and by his living arrangements: Dylan lives with Fraser, an incredibly mercurial man who doesn’t take kindly to Noah ‘inserting’ himself into their lives. The Arena of the Unwell already feels like it belongs to a bygone era of indie sleaze, and is all the better for it.

In the strange and shifting dynamics between Noah, Dylan and Fraser, Konemann speaks to the sometimes messy, often complicated nature of queer relationships and desire – especially with a supposedly straight boy in the mix. As well as a lot of new and upcoming books, many of which did not make the cut for these lists, I read a lot of horror (including a month of it in October) and plenty of poetry.As for grounding, I spent a lot of time in Camden in my first few years in London – I lived there and I worked there, and we usually went to the pub in either Camden or Kentish Town as well. but it was interesting nonetheless to be introduced into this scene and industry, and what better to do it than through a queer narrative. The long-awaited second instalment in Samantha Shannon's Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling series Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory.

He tries not to think about what will happen when his NHS-allocated therapy hours run out and he's left alone with his mind again. Apart from the fact that this one involved a lot less footnoting, the general process was quite similar. Claire reaches up to touch the damage, testing, then scoops her fringe out of her face with the same bloodied hand. Noah becomes entangled in their very toxic relationship but soon finds his attraction to Dylan shifting to Fraser. The author articulates with painful precision the anguish, desperation, and loneliness in Noah, and my heart really went out to him.I don’t feel any particular way about The Arena of the Unwell being cast as a queer book or a music book. Unfortunately it turns out to be a much more fraught relationship and complex situation than he imagined.

When the crowd turns violent, Noah runs into the street and meets Dylan, the charming local barman he’s never had the courage to approach. Another one where I’m counting the UK publication as making it a 2022 book, this is a complex tale of a trans woman obsessed with 60s band the Get Happiness and their mysterious leader B—.I really enjoy books that do co-dependent, messed up relationships well, and this is a great example, and being from Noah's perspective meant you saw how much he started to ignore everyone else when he really needed them.