TITLE: Snowblind
AUTHOR: Rose Christo
GENRE: Contemporary | LGBT > MM
PUBLISHED: July 13 2013
RATING: ★★★★★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon, Smashwords
MOBILISM LINK: Read
Review: As I first saw the cover I thought, ouch, doesn’t that hurt, frozen eyelashes and icicles and all? Apparently not because Shawn Wapa actually loves the cold to the extent of lying down on the frozen ground outside and let the snow fall in to his eyes. Which made me shiver in sympathy. Shawn is an Innu Native American, and no, that is not Inuit as he clarifies indignantly to Melanie, the little girl who just moved in across the street. Also, he doesn't like to socialize in general and human beings next door in particular...
I realized I had not showered in days. This realization was one I did not make often, one which did not ordinarily perturb me, and I knew enough to attribute it to my new and unwanted neighbors. With a silent curse, I laid my chin on my hands, my hands on the table. Human interference, you see, does more harm than good. It is best to weed out these problems long before they find the opportunity to take root.
This is how the first scene ends and it made me laugh. In some ways I actually agree with Shawn - if not entirely with the showering part, I prefer more cleanliness myself. It reminded me of a particular Wednesday some years ago: I’ve been playing an online-game and suddenly a note hovered over the screen warning me of an imminent maintenance shutdown of the gameserver. Ah, but people complained and on a whim I sarcastically typed into that little chatscreen: ‘Time to get groceries, clean the house, feed the cat and go shower!’ Which actually caused the chatwindow to go quiet for a few seconds.
Dedicated gamers can get lost in their very own world and forget about such basic things quite as this young man in Snowblind does, only the reason is a different one: he is blind and has experienced his share of less-than-friendly people and decided that a life away from human sociality - as far it goes without losing some sort of civilized comfort - is best for him.
The new neighbors, a single father with his adopted nine year old daughter, are less than welcome in Shawn’s life and he offers an exorbitant amount of money to get them to move out again. Kenneth Stiltz - the father - doesn’t take that attempted bribe kindly. The whole encounter made me laugh again since Shawn is a grumpy character and runs a dry, sarcastic mouth. Not quite the person you'd like at first glance but what he is thinking while forced to engage with people is amazing - and funny.
Weeks pass by and uneventful ones at that. Though one day, Melanie - ‘the midget’ as Shawn silently calls her - shows up at his doorstep and insists on communication, her being resentful about some situation at school. Since even Shawn has learned some basic manners he doesn't shut the door in her face and figuratively leaves open the same for a slow blooming, delicate and mutually beneficial relationship. The first remotely functional one he has had in years. With a midget… well, Melanie. And in the wake for an even more delicate one with Kenneth, one that grows more and more intimate, sometimes overwhelmingly so, and not necessarily in a sexual way.
However unsocial Shawn behaves, he’s actually sensitive and possesses a nice measure of empathy. Also, he knows to navigate the Internet with special equipment befitting a blind person. His favorite forum is a site about bombs - yup, bombs - that issues tips on how to tinker and use them. Not that he plans on doing that. One evening, a desperate girl types that she plans to kill herself, on a specific day. Shawn is upset and confused. He decides to find her and try and talk her out of it. And this is where his journey back to an acceptable social human being begins because Kenneth doesn’t let him go alone. He packs Shawn, his daughter and some clothes into his car and their 660 miles long, eventful roadtrip takes its course (involving stray arrows, wrong hands on the wrong person, blizzards and lost cellphones…).
Rose Christo’s language is fluid with a poetic quality and she understands to show us Shawn’s world in colorful pictures, exclusively from his point of view and amazingly with only the senses he’s actually able to use: sound, smell, taste, touch. Sight only surfaces in his dreams - or nightmares.
When I awoke I was grateful for the darkness of sightlessness, the all-encompassing shadows that swam in and out of my dead eyes. The darkness comforted me, robbing me of night visions, hampering my imagination. I’d never really thought of blindness as a blessing before, and I still don't; but in some way, I could understand how it might prove momentarily merciful.
Outside my walls I could hear screeching, whipping winds. The sound did not bode well. I dressed and decided to wash up. I recalled that the restroom was at the far end of the hall. I went outside and to the right.
When I opened the bathroom door I was greeted by a disconcerting wolf-whistle.
“Hiya, hon,” said an elderly woman’s voice. At least I hoped she was an elderly woman. No one else should have vocal cords so thin.
“Hello,” I said uncertainly. “This is not the restroom, is it?”
“No,” the elderly woman said. “Wanna stay for a while, have some Chambray?”
“No.”
“Take care, then.”
“Lock your door.”
The woman’s husband very thoughtfully escorted me from their room.
Shawn’s Native American background provides some unexpected insights in human nature. Sometimes also some real scary stuff that shouldn’t be possible anymore these days in a country such as America and that serves at the same time to propel the story forward. Christo’s characters are straightforward though anything but simple. The feeling (or voice) of the book I found lovely, humoristic, with a consistent undercurrent, one that doesn’t judge but appreciatively watches how every single one of the main-characters evolves, finds new meaning, new understanding and finally, love.
I might add that Snowblind isn't your typical MM romance with hot sex and happy ever after. In fact, the romance is woven subtly in to the story and serves together with other influences as a catalyst for Shawn's reluctant inner development. Shawn's initial social isolation centers around negative and even traumatizing events in his past. His trip to rescue the suicidal girl pressures him to (figuratively) open his eyes and allow a new openness towards his neighbors, other important people and to confront his inner monsters. Shawn doesn't conquer all his issues in the course of the story but really, he is young and I was happy to see him find the possibility of a socially integrated life - something he wants eventually.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It was easy for me to identify with Shawn; I was sad, intrigued, sometimes I thought, what the...?! Also, I laughed - even out loud while traveling in a train and of course, that drew some questioning glances my way. I didn't care. And maybe this is the true magnitude of Snowblind: viewing life, however hard it is or was, with humor.