Reviews

The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett

dunnadam's review against another edition

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4.0

A charming, engaging book that shares a vibrant story of theatre life in 1953 England. The hero 23 year-old Reggie works as a stage-hand with a magician and wanders through life looking for his place and purpose as a gay man in 1953.

The book was well done, a little simplistic, but a much more worthy addition to Bartlett's literary canon than his first two books. Not as amazing as Skin Lane but worth a look for a very pleasant distraction.

The errors in the ebook copy I bought from Amazon on Aug 19, 2014:
location 558, 16%, "Reggie always hold his breath."
location 1282, 37%, "to find what he was looking before before he was due back"
location 2501, 73%, "After all, every seaside pleasure has it mechanics, its point of friction and purchase"

glitchedgod's review

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3.0

Gay love novel, didn't even know it. Pretty good.

feralshojo's review

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2.0

I had no problems with the writing style as some others, unfortunately I never really got interested in the story or characters.

catdad77a45's review

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3.0

Although a nice evocation of early 50's UK, some intriguing characters, and Bartlett's always well-written prose, I just found the story and limited plot a bit ho-hum.... The fact it took me an entire week to slog through a 278 page novel is an indication it WASN'T very gripping.
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