The Gallopers

LoveReading Says

Jon Ransom won the Polari First Book Prize for his debut, so we can all take for granted that he’s a talented queer writer with a meaningful career ahead of him. 

The Gallopers creates an intense, claustrophobic atmosphere. We’re thrown into an unwelcoming rural landscape, always in view of a mysterious cursed field that Eli keeps being drawn back to, a community where everyone is hiding old secrets from each other. There are mysteries to uncover in this unforgiving place, but as a reader I found myself most compelled by the web of clandestine relationships between Eli and two very different men. Will he be able to untangle himself? Ransom shows the reader the events through a mixture of prose and sparse dialogue – as well as other mediums, like a short seeming-playscript about some of the female characters – where we’re not sure how much they are drawn from Eli’s own notes about his life. We’re left to piece the truth together ourselves.

Lily Lindon

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