I've come to remember that I am on the internet, and it's possible I could just send words out into the void, and hope it ends up getting the attention of someone who can answer it, right? So, fingers crossed.
I was trying to remember a particular line that I mentally attribute to being from something by @gailcarriger, though I don't remember exactly which book. The line was something similar to, "Loving is what I do. Loudly and dramatically..." and then my brain starts to wonder if I've muddled up or added words.
I thought it might have been from The Sumage Solution but trying to search it didn't lead to anything that was close.
So I'm going to shove this into the ether and maybe it'll ping for someone.
Gail Carriger Answers: What Happens to a Book After a Rough Draft?
I talk about what the editing process is like and why it takes so long to get into your hands.
Book in question is THE DRATSIE DILEMMA by GL Carriger. 4th in the San Andreas Shifters series is up for preorder NOW. Coming December 1, 2024.
The Chirrup (my newsletter) learned all about it first.
Lipstick I'm wearing: MAC Ruby Woo
Tea I am drinking: Deep Blue Abyss from Tea Punk Teas
Event in Salt Lake City, Utah? December 4th, 4pm-8pm = Gail Carriger & Piper J Drake at Under the Umbrella Bookstore
More about my struggles writing PRUDENCE here.
Hot air balloon lamp shades
Steppy Steppy (Sunny health) (used to be A LOT cheaper)!
About The Dratsie Dilemma
Trick, the otter shifter (and everyone's favorite barista), is running from a past he can't forget, and has accidentally landed in the surprisingly warm embrace of the local werewolf pack.
Everything is going swimmingly, until the merfolk show up. Mermaids en masse are a problem for everyone. This particular pod is guarded by one very powerful, very sexy merman - which mean's Trick's past has finally caught up to him. That past is grumpy, slippery and has been looking for Trick for over a decade.
If you pre-order directly from me you can read the first chapter (in rough draft form) right away. Plus it will release to you early! https://gailcarriger.com/sas4_yt_direct
“Then Ms Trickle showed up, with her wife, who turned out to be a chef of some tattooed variety. They’d stopped at the farmer’s market for pastries and snacks. ... Ms Trickle introduced herself and her wife, Pepper, said they’d brought a pickup so they could do the dump runs.”
Stayed up god awful late to read the sumage solution by gl carriger in one sitting last night. It was so good 10/10 would recommend! There's magic and werewolves and everyone is gay what more could a girl ask for
Look, child. I understand you are recently…not straight. We, the weird and the sideways folk, have always walked the line of rejection. It’s what makes us visionaries. We who are pushed away, to the edge, can see beyond the borders of reality. We frighten the privileged with our possibilities.
“The Sumage Solution: San Andreas Shifters #1” by G. L. Carriger
I once read a review of Poison or Protect that blasted it as pornography. I really, really hope that person gives The Sumage Solution a wide birth because h o l y s h i t if you thought Poison or Protect was racy, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Gail Carriger’s “The Sumage Solution”
Synopsis:
Can a gentle werewolf heal the heart of a smart-mouthed mage?
NYT bestseller Gail Carriger, writing as G. L. Carriger, presents an offbeat gay romance in which a sexy werewolf with a white knight complex meets a bad boy mage with an attitude problem. Sparks (and other things) fly.
Rating: 3/5
LGBTQA+? Yes. In. Fucking. Spades.
Genre(s): urban fantasy, gay paranormal romance
Enoby Approved: Sure
Read This Book If You Like: Gay sex. Explicit gay sex. Paranormal Romance.
Don’t Read This Book If You Can’t Handle: Gay sex. Sudden plot.
Disclaimer: I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel with the condition that I review it should I feel so inclined. Thoughts and opinions are my own. I would have reviewed this novel regardless of when or how I got it.
I have many feelings about this book. Let’s get into them, shall we? (Mild spoilers, ahoy!)
The Good.
LGBTQ representation. Gail is known for her Queer representation, but this book turns it up to about fifteen and it stays there the entire time. It’s absolutely beautiful. A work of art. Pretty much everyone in this book is some slice of Queer. Lesbians, gays, a trans/nonbinary character, mentions of bisexuality by NAME, poly couples, kink being discussed openly…. I was in Queer heaven.
QPOC representation. Main character is of visibly Asian descent. And he’s gay as hell. Hollah!
POV swap? Not really my thing. But somehow Gail managed to do alright. It was not as noticeable as some books I’ve read, which is a good sign for Competence, as that is also apparently supposed to be POV swap between the Tunstell twins.
I absolutely ADORED all the female characters in this. The lesbian Kelpie boss, the kinky poly Tonks-esque kitsune (Gladdy!!! <3 ), and Manifest Destiny. They are all Queer as hell and I love them.
Sex positivity! Loved the sex positivity. Lots of talk about sex toys and stuff. Great to see : )
The Meh.
There were some cute mentions to how this series may/may not extension of Parasolverse…but honestly? I would have loved this series to be a clean break from the Parasolverse as a completely different thing. Nothing was gained by linking this to the Parasolverse, and the links that did exist were a bit confusing and would not make sense to any reader not familiar with it. While I am more than here for easter eggs and nudge-nudge-wink-wink references, these did not feel like that. The references to the Parasolverse felt unnecessary and heavy handed, and I believe the novel would have been better without them. I think The Sumage Solution should have existed in a new Universe completely.
(I think Gail has been doing this a lot recently. Parts of Competence felt very similar to this. I think the Parasol universe has simply gotten too large for a lot of self-reference.)
I called pretty much every plot twist in the book. I’m unsure if that is just because my brain works very similar to Gail’s or if the twists were just that predictable. You decide.
At some times it felt like Gail had just upended a bag of supernatural creatures directly into a word document. I’m pretty well versed in supernatural lore and even I got lost. It would have been nice to have a glossary of some kind or another to refer to so I did not have to pause reading to look up things on the internet (and then get distracted by the internet…).
I went in expecting romance and only romance. There was no indication on the outside it might be more, but about halfway through it shifted from Romance to Romance with Sudden Plot. I suppose I should have known better, because this is Gail we are talking about, but normally she manages to interweave Romance and Plot seamlessly. This did not feel like that; instead it felt a little sudden and a bit jarring. I was not a fan of the sudden shift. If the plot had been interwoven from the beginning, I might have been more on board. But as it was? Nah.
The Bad.
Why do all of the men have such generic White Boy Names? I’m losing track of all these white men. And one of them isn’t even white! Max, Bryan, Kevin, Colin… seriously, Gail, you come up with shit like Conall and Sidheag Maccon and Sandalfius Ulf for the Parasolverse and yet here we are with White Bread Boy 1 and White Bread Boy 2. Throw me a bone, I’m dying here.
In that vein, I lost track of who was who. Gail introduces a lot of characters in a very little amount of time. I can’t remember the names of most of them, especially the werewolves. There were a lot of characters to juggle.
I’m still not sure what the rest of the San Andreas Shifters pack looks like. I know one of them is black, and that the rest of them are white and muscle-y except the boy who isn’t (and Alec). And that’s about all I got.
More werewolves of color please. I want an entire pack of werewolves of color. None of this one-off black werewolf nonsense.
The Cringe.
I’m really over the “man trapped in a woman’s body” narrative for trans people. I’m going to give Gail the benefit of the doubt because I trust her, and the whole “man trapped in a woman’s body” narrative was brought up by a cis character and not the trans character herself. I know that character opinion does not equal author opinion, so this is probably just a cis male character trying to understand the trans experience and not Gail’s own opinion on said trans experience. That being said, I’m over that narrative and wish it would stop, especially because this is Gail’s first trans character.
Overmuch man sex. Look, I knew what I was getting into. I knew there was gonna be gay sex. I was fine with that. But this novel reads a little less than a novel and reads more like an M or E rated m/m fanfic where there is sex every chapter. I don’t have necessarily have a problem with that; God knows I’ve read enough fanfic that is all sex and no plot. I’ve also never read anything in the published m/m genre besides this so I have nothing to refer this to. Is this amount of sex standard? I have no idea, but I don’t really feel it necessary to find out. M/M sex is not really my thing. My delicate lesbian sensibilities!
TL;DR:
I’m super conflicted by this book, because I want to love it. It had all of the things that I love about Gail’s work (supernaturals, queer elements, witty banter, etc) but this book was just a miss for me. It was a lot of little things that added up that made me dislike it more than just on large thing that put me off it.
Would I read more books in the The San Andreas Shifters series, should they come out? Possibly. I don’t know if I’d care to read more about Biff and Max. I would love to read more about the side characters, of the rest of the pack members. However, this series does not inspire me to read it over and over and over again the way Parasolverse does, and it would probably only be a one-time read unless future books really captivate me.
I feel like I’ve sinned against Gail by not liking this book, but I figure that if this is the first thing of hers that I don’t like, and she’s written 13+ things so far, she’s doing okay. The Sumage Solution was simply just not me, even though I desperately want it to be. Your mileage may vary; go ahead and give it a go. You might like it more than I do.
