I wanted to like this book much more than I did. About a queer D&D group, the scenes set during the gaming sessions were wonderful, both the in-character interactions and the gamers talking smack. I liked the range of different types of gamers.

The rest of the novel left me unsatisfied. The characters were slightly skewed stereotypes at the beginning, deepening as the novel progressed. I get that this is supposed to mirror how characters evolve in a game from initial stats to complex people. Maybe the plot got in the way? The expected ending felt scattershot and unearned and rushed.

I wanted more weirdness, even though it contains a vampire cult and tentacle dildos. Or maybe more subversion. For instance, the protagonist is an insecure nerd who lives in his parents’ basement. He’s even a virgin. But he’s gay! I expected more. ( )

Love the concept of The Cleveland Heights LGBTQ Sci-Fi and Fantasy Role Playing Club by Doug Henderson, but not the execution, or lack there of when it came to the character development. Being a geek who reads comics and plays Magic the Gathering, I really enjoyed reading about the group’s time spent playing D&D and their run in with the vampire LARP group, since I could actually see things like that happening. I think if Henderson were to write a D&D novel he would do a great job.

But the characters were all stereotypes of geeks and nerds… which is fine since some stereotypes really do fit geeks, but I wanted more character development. Valerie was there to make a couple of scenes weird and Celeste, well I really don’t know. Mooneyham and Huey were there to add in a homophobic layer, and Albert/Jeff were there as love interests to Ben, who I guess had the most development. If you think a 25 year old who goes to thrift stores to sell items on eBay and still lives in his parent’s basement is a well rounded character and not just a stereotype.

While I think this book was supposed to take place in present day, it felt more like the 1980’s when groups of kids would get picked on for playing D&D… especially since in present day, D&D and MTG are played by some pretty cool people like MMA fighters, football players and actors.

I think if you’re a geeky, young adult questioning your sexuality or already know that you’re LGBTQ, then you may enjoy this book, but even to you it may come off as a bit shallow. ( )