All The Better Part Of Me

Sinter Blackwell is an actor in London learning about himself. What he likes, what he wants, who he wants… And through this process he ends up following gut and moving back to the states to live with his childhood best friend, Andy. While with Andy, he becomes more comfortable in the sexuality he identifies with and hears some intense news from London that makes his life with Andy instantly more complicated,

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this book. It was both weird, run of the mill writing and storytelling, then very charming and real and emotional. I am, confused.

There was some characterizations that I found strange, especially for Fiona. For an adult woman, she says and does some things that seem far younger and immature. In a way that made me think those things were written like that just to further or create plot. But she also made choices that are hard and real and it was refreshing to get to see a female character act in such a way.

On the other hand, Andy and Sinter were such wonderfully unique and consistent voices that played true to who they are. They each had their own tones, emotions, thought processes, and dynamics that they brought to the story. It definitely allowed for fun yet surprising read.

It was also AMAZING to see on page representation of a bisexual man and transgender man and having that play in to how the characters react with their love lives but not having it ever be a thing to make them lesser. As someone who has seen that before in books, movies, and shows, it was great to see them as who they are and more than a label.

I think this book did a great job of showing that any story that has been told about cishets, is far more engaging and emotional when it is about queer people. I cried, that doesn’t happen often. I felt so transparently what Sinter was feeling and the relationship with his family was all too cruelly believable. I want all angsty romance lovers to read this. I want them to fall in love with this like I did.