Sideways Down the Sky

Finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction in the 27th annual Triangle Awards

Finalist for the 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards at Foreword Reviews

In the land of snow monsters and steam baths, complex characters as diverse as the Japanese terrain
experience lust, loss, and love.

 A young boy performs a daring rescue. A woman loses her old life to face an uncertain new one. A teenager suffers through a cataclysmic event. Unusual bonds form at the Tokyo Olympics. A rent boy’s hardened heart melts when he meets a sexy, buoyant stranger.

Much like the Japanese islands themselves, there is commonality to be found among myriad differences. The poet, the musician, the artist, the tortured mother, the bankrupt father, the protective brother—they all know that there’s a new day awaiting them after the moon slips
sideways down the sky.

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This is another wonderful book by Barry Brennessel; Paradise at Main & Elm was my Book of the Year in 2013. Sideways Down the Sky now joins it on my list of all-time favourites, and while Adrian and Ezra hold a special place in my heart, so do several of the characters in this book. I loved Akio and his enduring love for Genkei. I thought it was fitting he ran into Kazuki, their understanding of pain and the special relationship that was forged from that. Then there are Yuji and Toru, two rent boys who Aiko sees so much hope for, a project that gave him so much – an ‘ending and a beginning’. Sideways Down the Sky is well named and evocative; it resonated with me, and if you like Barry Brennessel or the sound of the book, I cannot recommend it highly enough. 5 Stars!

––Kazza for On Top Down Under Book Reviews