Trust and Safety by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman

Publication date: May 2024
LGBTQ+ author? Unknown
Setting: Modern day New York
Content warnings: On page death of farm animals for food

Reading this book made me feel SO UNCOMFORTABLE. None of the characters were likable. And they unfortunately reminded me of exaggerated versions of myself or people I know! But I kept on reading for those reasons too.

Summary

This book is about a newly married couple, Rosie and Jordan, who live in New York City. Rosie feels unsatisfied by her life in the city and escapes by scrolling through Instagram. She falls in love with the idea of moving to upstate New York and living a simpler more authentic life. The pair pay too much for an old house that needs major renovations. Rosie and Jordan both lose their jobs the week they close on the house.

To make ends meet, they rent a small, old building on their property to a queer couple Dylan and Lark. As Rosie does her best to embrace her new location, she gets increasingly involved in her tenants’ lives.

Our anxious narrator

At the core of this book are Rosie’s competing desires for safety and excitement, leaving her constantly dissatisfied. She desperately wants to be liked and accepts the unkind ways she is treated by others without complaint. She is also incredibly socially anxious. The way she dissects every interaction and puts herself down is immediately recognizable by anyone who has ever suffered from anxiety.

Throughout the novel Rosie always thinks there is a more perfect life out there for her. She just needs to buy the right thing (or house) to get there. This coupled with her Instagram obsession is an interesting critique of how young people are managing a declining quality of life alongside rising expectations of what their lives should look on social media.

The queer polycule

This book so accurately captures the mess and beauty of what it can be be part of a small circle of queer friends, where everyone has dated or is ethically, openly dating each other.

Even though Dylan and Lark’s circle of friends does some not particularly nice things, they have many more moments of generosity and emotional maturity. Most of them are polyamorous. This makes Jordan confused and Rosie curious. But their relationships have the solid communication, trust and lack of jealousy that are at the core of polyamory.

This book also has almost no homophobia or transphobia. The story is about other things. This I so appreciate!

Recommendation

I struggled with giving this book a star rating as I think the characters (especially Rosie) were very well-written.

There is a plot twist later on in the book that I thought took the book in an unrealistic direction. It kept turning even more towards absurdity as I finished the final chapters. This pulled me out of identifying strongly with the characters into seeing it more as a parable than something that might have actually happened.

It’s a quick read, so I think it is worth picking up … especially if you’ve ever fantasized about moving from the city to a small town somewhere!

Thank you to Net Galley for providing this Advanced Reader Copy for review.