Green Fairy (Dangerous Spirits #1) Spoiler-Free Review
This is the spoiler-free review of Kyell Gold's Green Fairy. The first novel in his Dangerous Spirits series.
Kyell Gold has been one of my favorite authors for some time. Green Fairy was the first non-erotic novel of his that I've ever read. I wasn't surprised that it was on par, if not better than his other works.
"If Sol can just survive his last year of high school, he can escape his homophobic small town and go live with his Internet boyfriend for the summer. But when he loses his starting spot on the baseball team and converts to vegetarianism -- a wolf, giving up meat! -- his father threatens him with a hot, muggy summer working in the peach cannery unless he gets his act together. His teammates, who suspect his sexuality already, won't make it easy for him. But even with nobody on his side but his best friend Meg (who is even less popular than he is), the teenager finds answers and solace in an unlikely place: a 1901 book about a tragic gay romance in the bohemian district of Lutèce, around the famed Moulin Rouge. Inspired by the spirit of the era, Meg and Sol share a glass of absinthe, with startling effect: Sol begins to dream that he is a cabaret dancer named Niki, offered a chance to escape his difficult life through romance -- at the price of his beloved art of dance.
When the dreams seep into his waking life, Sol adds "going crazy" to his worries, and the problems of a couple that lived a hundred years ago to the ever-growing list of his own. To save both Niki and himself, Sol will have to learn the difference between reality and illusion, and discover what love and life mean to him." -Synopsis from Sofawolf publishing.
You'd think that plot is a setup for an epic failure, but Kyell just uses it to elevate the story further. If the main story of Sol's life isn't intriguing enough the story of Niki in 1901 will interest you. The way he intertwines and parallels the two canines lives was my favorite part of the novel.
The characters are fully developed. There are a couple of enemies Sol meets in his life and sometimes they made this fox want to go beat them up. When an author creates enemies that you yourself want to attack, you know they're doing a good job.
I can't state my love for this novel fully without spoiling it, so check out my spoiler review if you've already read the novel! This book meant a lot to me, it was very relatable, and made me cry, something very few novels have done.
Rating 10/10
Note: There are no explicit sex scenes in this novel. There is some foul language (including sexual references), male/male romance, and bullying.