Yes, this is my second Alexis Hall book review in a row on this blog, which I suppose is bad form, but I had so many thoughts about Never After that I could not wait.
SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW FOR BOTH NEVER AFTER AND MY NAKED SEX SLAVE NOVEL MINDGAMES
For much of the time that I was reading Never After I was like, wait, this is the plot of my smutty novel, Mindgames, except that instead of being a dark romance about a naked sex slave in a dystopian future, it's a dark romance about an opium addict in Victorian England.
Point by point:
In Mindgames, a healer named Gabriel rescues a naked sex slave named Mariah who is close to death, and nurses her back to health. In Never After, a minister named Thomas rescues an opium addict named Michael who is close to death, and nurses him back to health.
In Mindgames, Mariah is incapable of trusting Gabriel and is incredibly obnoxious to him and everyone else. In Never After, Michael is incapable of trusting Thomas and is incredibly obnoxious to him and everyone else.
In Mindgames, Mariah's life has forced her to view sex as a commodity. In Never After, Michael's life has forced him to view sex as a commodity.
In Mindgames, Gabriel has friends who understand the worldviews of both Mariah and Gabriel and help mediate the differences between them. In Never After, Thomas has a housekeeper who understands the worldviews of both Michael and Thomas and help mediate the differences between them.
In Mindgames, as Mariah recovers she slowly starts to trust Gabriel but it's always two steps forward, one step back. In Never After, as Michael recovers he slowly starts to trust Thomas but it's always two steps forward, one step back.
In Mindgames, Mariah clings to the secrets of her past as her best protection against being hurt by Gabriel. In Never After, Michael clings to the secrets of his past as his best protection against being hurt by Thomas.
I like to think that maybe, maybe, maybe Hall read Mindgames and took inspiration from it. I realize the more likely scenario is that the plot of Mindgames is maybe the teensiest bit cliched, so that Hall came up with a similar plot completely independently -- but a girl can dream.
The endings of the two books are not at all the same. Mindgames has a mostly unambiguous happily ever after. Although Hall has written many wonderful and boisterous historical novels in which queer people live in their time mostly out and mostly proud, Never After is much more realistic. There is a happily ever after, but only of a sort. It is Hall's darkest work, and one of his best.
