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tbutton's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Vomit
Moderate: Addiction, Violence, and Slavery
Minor: Sexual assault
gerhard's review
5.0
I think Tom Cardamone does himself a disservice by subtitling this 'a novella'. It is short at barely 150 pages, but has more incident and heart-stopping writing than many so-called blockbusters out there.
I had heard of Cardamone before because of his work on The Lost Library, and discovered Green Thumb cited on the Lambda Award list for best gay SF/horror work.
One of the fascinating things about this slim novel is how it uses the tropes of both SF and the gay coming-of-age novel to rather startling effect. (I think it is a strong sign of the maturity of the gay genre that a writer like Cardamone can move beyond its stereotypes to a kind of pan-sexuality or polymorphous perversity, and yet still be identified as gay writing.)
However, it is thoroughly misleading to pigeonhole this as a 'gay' work, and I sincerely hope this does not limit Cardamone's audience. Then again, neither is it 'pure' SF. Basically, if you enjoy well-written and provocative speculative fiction, then this is for you.
The best comparisons I can think of are JG Ballard, Ian McDonald (Desolation Road in particular), Neil Gaiman and even Mervyn Peake. But at the end of the day, Cardamone's is a unique voice -- and what a glorious voice that is.
Given that this is a post-apocalyptic tale, it is surprisingly, er, sunny, and hopeful, and wildly sexy, with one of the most magical endings I have ever read.
Exquisite writing, thrilling characters and a shimmering sensuousness make this a wonder to behold. Utterly beguiling.
I had heard of Cardamone before because of his work on The Lost Library, and discovered Green Thumb cited on the Lambda Award list for best gay SF/horror work.
One of the fascinating things about this slim novel is how it uses the tropes of both SF and the gay coming-of-age novel to rather startling effect. (I think it is a strong sign of the maturity of the gay genre that a writer like Cardamone can move beyond its stereotypes to a kind of pan-sexuality or polymorphous perversity, and yet still be identified as gay writing.)
However, it is thoroughly misleading to pigeonhole this as a 'gay' work, and I sincerely hope this does not limit Cardamone's audience. Then again, neither is it 'pure' SF. Basically, if you enjoy well-written and provocative speculative fiction, then this is for you.
The best comparisons I can think of are JG Ballard, Ian McDonald (Desolation Road in particular), Neil Gaiman and even Mervyn Peake. But at the end of the day, Cardamone's is a unique voice -- and what a glorious voice that is.
Given that this is a post-apocalyptic tale, it is surprisingly, er, sunny, and hopeful, and wildly sexy, with one of the most magical endings I have ever read.
Exquisite writing, thrilling characters and a shimmering sensuousness make this a wonder to behold. Utterly beguiling.
selenotropic's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Tom Cardamome is a talented writer from a technical standpoint. The world he evokes here is weird and fascinating and his writing is densely vivid and sensual. Unfortunately that's about all I got from Green Thumb. The first part all it really has is description. Vivid, certainly, but it doesn't feel like it's doing anything with it. Once the plot gets going, I found things got a lot worse. This is mostly personal taste, but I just found everything dark and unpleasant, and not in a way that got me interested. Unpleasant in a way that made me not want to read it. The plot beats happen suddenly and without much coherence and with absolutely no agency for the protagonist, culminating in a sudden ending that's simultaneously overly convenient, baffling, unsatisfying, and again rather unpleasant. Disappointed by this one but everyone else seems to love it so maybe I'm the problem.
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