Unfit to Print

Instant favorite. I'm always amazed at KJ Charles' wizardry, but I really don't understand how there is this much emotional depth in a relatively short work.

This story actually conveyed a truth to me about a formative relationship in my own life, something I've been unhappy about for years, partly because I didn't understand. I'm in awe at that. I would've said I was too old to read a book that would reframe my perspective so dramatically, but I guess not.

Trying to think about this book on its own merits, though - well, the writing is really top-quality. Here's some amazing characterization of Vikram via his reaction to an environment:

The Strand was a wide thoroughfare with imposing tall frontages, fit for the capital of empire; Holywell Street was its disreputable, drink-sodden uncle with his trouser buttons undone. It was narrow and lined with sagging Jacobean or even Elizabethan houses, their black timbers barely showing against soot-darkened plaster, with pointed gables and overhanging storeys that conspired together to block out what little daylight there was.

To me, Gil and Vikram grew up like entwined trees, supporting and encouraging each other's better natures. When they were torn apart, they both ended up a little deformed, and a little less themselves than they had been together. It was extremely satisfying to watch them work their way back to each other. I don't know if a relationship that fulfilling can exist in real life, but I loved reading about it.

Charles is one of my favourite historical MM writers but this one left me a little disappointed.
It's an outlier in that both main characters are POC but the murder-mystery plot and even the relationship between the two just felt insipid. It either needed to be longer so as to develop the characters and their past a bit more, or needed to lose the mystery plot and just be a character-driven romance.
Since I'm neither from the late 1800s Britain or POC I found it hard to tell if this whole situation was realistic or not. Gil is a biracial man who was abandoned by his white brothers after their father dies, which we find out later is more due to greed and hypocrisy rather than his colouring. He's nonetheless picked himself up by the bootstraps and is now the owner and sole-operator of a bookstore in the seedier part of London that also has dealings with black-market pornography. Vikram is an old childhood friend and now lawyer-advocate for the disenfranchised and immigrant community who is looking for leads in the disappearance of a young Indian man. This takes him to Gil's bookshop and a reunion with his long lost best friend. Due to lack of a communication and misunderstanding, Gil had forgotten about Vikram after having felt completely abandoned by him. Where Vikram has never forgotten Gil and is shocked to find he's not only alive but well and an integral part of his mysterious case.

The relationship picks up like no time passed and there's some crime solving in between. The main thing that makes this a Charles book is the heartfelt dialogue between the two as well as a few well-written sexual scenes and a HFN ending. Read it to be a Charles completest but know that it's just not the best of their works.

Right from the start I liked Gil and Vikram a lot. Maybe I liked Vikram a little more because I may or may not have a thing for good-guy-lawyers, but who knows, really. Their story was so nice. Sad too, but the sad part was mostly off page so I got to enjoy them getting together and chatting and basically getting reacquainted with each other. And, of course, I liked Sa- erm, the cat named Satan, a quite strong willed cat if I may say so.

The plot was very interesting, I don't recall reading something similar and I would have been inclined to say it was all (or most of it) an invention until I read about the research K.J. Charles did (extra points there, I always love good research) and I must say... I'm not surprised, a sort of black market for prohibited books and pictures is not something I am surprised to know people did back in the day.

This short novella reads very easy, the story flows smoothly, and it is highly enjoyable. Unfit to Print is one of those books I would categorise as perfect for an evening in, all cosy, paired with a cup of your preferred drink.