Way too long for my personal taste, even though in number of pages, it should fall on the short side. Specifically, I was only able to be emotionally connected to the book in the last 13%.

This was a difficult read for me, laying the groundwork with a terribly homophobic environment, a narrative jumping back and forth in time and place, sometimes riddled with diary entries, sometimes with an accent that I had have to put a lot of effort into decoding, as English is not my first language. Honestly, I don't really think that I can define a target audience for this book whatsoever.

One funny thing I could identify with is the fact that the sixty-plus pensioner thinking about emigrating notes that he can wipe his ass abroad with his pension in East Caribbean dollars. *cries in east european currency*

I am unfortunately DNFing at 35%
I was really interested in the themes of this book, but a third in I still haven't really been pulled into the story and I find it really hard to stay motivated to read.

I think I will have to come back to this one as a physical book once it's out and read just a few pages at a time to finish it.


Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have mixed feelings about this one. At its heart, it's the story of Gordon, a 60-something closeted gay man, living on the island of St Vincent, where a climate of homophobia has repressed Gordon his entire life. Gordon has been married for years to Maureen, who was entirely unaware for most of their marriage that her husband had a secret life, and whose diary of their marriage forms a large part of the book. On one level, I thought this was a really intriguing narrative device.

I feel like the tragic trope of a woman secretly married to a gay man has been somewhat done to death in queer narratives - I'm thinking of My Policeman, for example - and I was interested in reading a book that told this story from the woman's perspective, because I think this is often lacking. At times, this book really does this well. I actually found Maureen's character much more compelling than Gordon, especially as her diary delves much more deeply into her childhood, her family, and the attitudes she was raised with. This was an intriguing and effective way of building tension; we find out piecemeal what Maureen actually knows about her husband, and this works because we, of course, already know his secrets. We know what she doesn't know, to put it simply.

By contrast, Gordon's portion of the narrative sometimes feels a little shallow; he does very little for the first two thirds of the book except read his wife's diary and wait for their daughter's flight to land. After the two third mark, the action ramps up, and without spoiling anything, this part of the story felt a little rushed to me. The marked shift in tone from the slow, steady pace of Maureen's diary to the plot-heavy denouement didn't quite work for me; I think I wanted it to feel more cohesive.

Another element that didn't entirely make the grade for me was Maureen's character as a whole. Again, without spoiling anything, she suffers enormously because of Gordon's double life, and although we do empathise with Gordon's decisions and inability to live openly as a gay man due to the miasma of societal homophobia he experiences on a daily basis, I felt that Maureen was sometimes too forgiving. I can't personally imagine reconciling the effects of Gordon's lies as quickly as Maureen did. She's clearly a better woman than me. There were also moments in the book where both Gordon and Maureen seemed to be acting as didactic mouthpieces rather than characters, explaining certain incidents of homophobia within St Vincent politics in a way that felt like exposition rather than their natural opinions, and I wish that they'd been a little more developed.

Still, this book does a lot of things well. The atmosphere of St Vincent itself is done beautifully, with Gordon's colourful (to say the least) neighbours and family members, and the depiction of the social strata on the island. Maureen's mother is a particularly fascinating character, because although her actions are pretty awful most of the time, there's always a tragic undercurrent pushing her in this direction. I think this is perhaps what was missing for me with Gordon's character. He never seemed quite as torn between his two lives as I think he was supposed to. The fact that other characters did have this degree of nuance just made his lack of it more apparent.

Overall, despite not always jiving with the characters, I found this to be a really interesting look at life on St Vincent, and a valuable addition to the global corpus of LGBTQ+ literature.

What a heartbreaking story. You just witness everything going terribly wrong with every single character (mostly, especially, avoidable errors) and can't do nothing but feel sad and watch it happening. It felt too bittersweetly real, you can swear this characters existed or, sadly, that stories like this one are still happening right now.

It's a slap on your face, showing how the majority of the world are still full with bias and the bubble we're seeing getting better for diversity still is a bubble unfortunately. And how, even though Gordon and Allen are in a very fragile position in the society they live, they still fall and take advantage of the comfort of relying on a woman in this patriarchy world. It's just so sad in every single way.

The narrative is very successful in passing the feeling of reading someone's reflection of it's own mind and life. Not perfectly scripted or answering all questions or precisely descriptions of past events. It was like Maureen and Gordon were actual people telling their version of their lives.

Just prepare to see a lot of injustices beenig taken and committed by all of the characters. Along side with their flaws and errors. It's a very messy morally gray confusion. There's no bad or good side, just catastrophe everywhere.

I wouldn't have mind sticking a little longer to the story, to see more of what happens in the future of the characters or how certain events unfolded, but that end reinforced the feeling that this is a real story, not fiction. And, in it's own way, it is, sadly. It only brought more veracity to the story in my opinion.

Trigger/Content Warnings: homophobia, domestic abuse, domestic violence, verbal abuse, aggression, suicidal idealization, suicide (off page, mentioned only), misogyny, infidelity.

Highly recommend it! Super sad, but a very needed portrait of reality for queer people in so many places on the world. Ended this book speechless, disoriented, heartbroken.

Thank you Dundurn Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

i’d never read a novel from st. vincent before, and the fact that it is a lgbtq+ story deserves kudos in itself. but i cannot say i enjoyed this novel; i found it a bit too rough around the edges, which is probably on me — i just hate to see queer people suffer in fiction, as we’ve suffered enough in real life. but i guess it does paint a good portrait of the queer experience in the caribbean, which is both heartbreaking and quite compelling.

I wanted to love this book due to its great theme and synopsis. I think it was not well delivered unfortunately. It had a weird poetic writing style that I was not interested in. I think if it had a different writing style it would have been a lot better

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Despite the great concept, I really struggled to get through this one. I got easily lost in the layered prose and could not for the life of me keep track of what waa going on. For a more patient reader, I think this book could be worth the effort.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley. I didn't enjoy this book at all. I felt it was badly structured and the use of dialect was not well done. I think the concept has valure but the narrative did not pull that value out. The first 60 % was so dull and repetitive. I couldny really get a feel for any of the characters. The latter part never really made up for that. I don't see how this book can sustain a 3.5 goodreads rating as it becomes more widely read

There's no denying that the story being told here is such an incredibly important one. I enjoyed it being told from the perspective of both Gordon and Maureen (via the memoir/journal entries), which truly showcased how the different characters felt and were affected by the events.

I can't say I'm familiar with the culture and history of St Vincent and the Grenadines. The author painted a beautifully brutal and vivid picture of the nature, culture, politics, and homophobia of this country. For certain this was the strength of this book.

I'm not entirely sure if the writing was for me - I found the time jumps to be rather distracting and made for convoluted storytelling. And the story seemed to end so suddenly it felt anti-climactic.

While this was difficult at times to read due to the nature of the story being told, it was still an enjoyable read.

This is a very multi-faceted and interesting book, I just don’t think it is for me. So glad to see more queer Caribbean literature though!

Overall, this was not the book for me. I did enjoy the theme and character development throughout; however, the fears were constant so it did get a little repetitive and the first three quarters of the book felt like they dragged on. I would recommend this to others because I feel like anyone who is going through difficulties with their sexuality might benefit from reading this.

Thanks to NetGalley/publishers for the arc!

I really enjoy learning about other cultures and especially small countries I know nothing about. I feel Thomas paints a vivid and critical picture of life in St. Vincent over the decades. A lush and beautiful island, but the living conditions are bleak and infuriating - violence, rape, nepotism, and homophobic attacks supported by the government and by various fundamentalist churches in St. Vincent, combined with a claustrophobic feeling of neighbours spying on every step you take. To nobody's surprise, a lot of these systemic issues are the legacy of British colonialism and slavery.

I couldn't quite warm up to the writing, I got lost in the time jumps, and a lot of the dialogue, inner monologue and Maureen's journal felt a bit repetitive and as if written for the reader, not for the other characters.

The story is heartbreaking, the characters are morally complex, and there are no easy answers for the situations described in the book. I recommend it to anyone who likes depressing stories and would like to learn more about the dangers faced by the LGBTQ+ community around the world.

Thank you to H. Nigel Thomas, Dundurn Press, and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC.

Sometimes a book is so heartbreaking but so good. Being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community myself i really felt this book and I grew to love the characters like they were my friends. They were well rounded and the book was really well thought out.

This book was very well written and well thought out. The story is heartbreaking, I couldn't help but feel bad for the main character. He deserved love and to be able to be himself. it's heartbreaking to see him struggle with the opinions of others and laws that surround him. it's even more sad because these are real issues that people around the world have to go through, or went through.

A different look at a different culture! Set in the tiny Carribean island of Saint Vincent, Gordon and Allen find their sexuality is not accepted. They both complete their studies abroad, and return to family situations, hiding their true selves.

The characters in this book are well thought out, and each have a different perspective about LGBTQ - some being directly impacted.
It is imperative Gordon and Allen keep their secret from the public/community where they have big jobs and would be shunned/killed for being bi/gay.

Interesting read, highly recommend!

A Different Hurricane deals with what it is to be homosexual in the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, where homosexuality is not just shunned socially but is also a crime. The story follows Gordon Wiley, a homosexual man who faces fear, rejection, hate and threats for no fault of his. Gordon grows up in a small village where all opinions are heard and shared, lives briefly in Montreal where he experiences an open and taboo-less culture around sexuality, and through a twist of fate, is forced back to the life he escaped from. Told through Gordon's eyes and partly through his wife's journal the plot explores the anxiety surrounding a double life and the will to create a better future for the next generation.

The prose is sensitive and reads like a stream of conscience. The only negative is that the plot switches timelines often and this switch is not as seamless as it can be. But on the whole, a very interesting narrative.

I love the way this book is written so much. The parts of the journal and then the parts of Gordon himself. 

Honestly all the people in this book are so well-written and multi faceted. 

This story absolutely broke my heart, especially since it's so real. I truly never really considered the wife's of gay men who got AIDS during the AIDS crisis. All because people decide to hate on love. Love = love, no matter the gender or the skin color of the people involved. 

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC.