The Whale Tattoo

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When he meets up with his ex-lover, Tim Fysh, events spiral as Joe is caught between Tim’s aggressive brother Doug, Tim’s pregnant wife Dora and his own homophobic father.

A man more alive than any I’d ever gazed upon' was intriguing and I hoped to see what would come of it, especially in comparison to how Eli was treated by Shane. With numerous scenes of graphic sex this is a very descriptive novel, where the inky black water and sky really come alive in the writing.

It was irrelevant and as ridiculously irrelevant as those films made in the 1960's showing that black people were just like us. Jon Ransom is exploring the nature of grief, of identity, of memory and family relationship in The Whale Tattoo in the most innovative and convincing ways. And a desire to gaze at men in a way that would bring me more misfortune than not' - he had the potential to be a character that I hoped would leave a lasting impression.

Ransom's short stories have appeared in many anthologies and journals including Queer Life, Queer Love amongst others. Joe talks to the water, and the water answers, but the prose is filled with descriptions of the salt marshes and the dykes, the river and the sea, and the trawlers bringing home the shellfish catch. It is a novel about Joe Gunner and his life and experiences as a working class child, adolescent and young man dealing with everything that growing up in a decaying fishing town in Norfolk.I should add that this may be in part due to the formatting issues in my review copy, which often made the writing more fractured than intended).

The story assumes a non linear structure, almost like throwing broken pieces on the ground and arranging them into a collage: an epic of loss and ultimately, hope. Is it OK to be intrigued by a book, to like it, and yet to sense you haven't scraped more than the top couple of layers?

Photograph: Sophie Davidson View image in fullscreen Opening up what we believe is possible … Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea. Unlike those shirtless lads with sunburnt shoulders, kicking a ball about on the field behind your yard. This is a really weird book about and being a teenager and trying to grow up and being gay and about how maybe you are cursed forever, possibly by a whale. Soon, the love that they each have in their lives overflows into hate that may very well destroy them. You can read more about the purposes for which we and our partners use cookies and manage your cookie settings by visiting our Cookie Policy.

I really struggled to read this and in the end I had to admit defeat and give up reading at around the halfway mark. Delving deep in the psyche of the main character Joe, who is trapped in a small seaside town, queer and tormented by death. I found this novel to be engaging and heart-breaking and, in some ways, that makes it difficult for me to describe it in a review.The use of such a close first person narrator, within a timeline that skipped back and forth with little warning or explanation, meant that I felt thrust inside this world that told of pain and hurt, and yet somehow also of the various types of love and care.