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Romeo & Seahorse
Romeo has Hepatitis again. It’s no surprise, and when you haven’t slept for days staying awake is easy. And anyway, there’s the promise of more drugs, more sex. Leaving his boyfriend at home he heads out for hookups, getting abjectly high and pushing his body to grotesque extremes in an urgent but dissociated quest for romance. What follows is a delirious trip through squalid rooms, hospital wards, and nighttime parks, broken by memories of first loves, European travels, and meditations on what it means to be a Romeo.
With chaotic chemsex escapades and musings on romantic love, art and belonging, Romeo & Seahorse takes us to places not often explored in fiction. Written in a relentless, frenzied first-person narrative with moments of mind-bending wisdom and poignancy, this is a one-of-a-kind novel about addiction, desire, belonging, and want that’s destined to become a queer classic.
"Romeo & Seahorse punctures the mythology of love with the tyranny of desire until everything bleeds out onto the carpet of domesticity left outside to rot in the musty weather. Yes, this is a book about addiction that actually hurts—spinning between tragedy and a happy ending, between absolute delusion and cynical collapse, between fire and emptiness, honesty and meltdown. So matter-of-fact that it becomes dissociated, so dissociated that it flails with embodiment, Romeo & Seahorse is a novel that crushes the novel form and hands it to you to smoke in a glass pipe that shatters with your complicity."
—Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Touching the Art
With chaotic chemsex escapades and musings on romantic love, art and belonging, Romeo & Seahorse takes us to places not often explored in fiction. Written in a relentless, frenzied first-person narrative with moments of mind-bending wisdom and poignancy, this is a one-of-a-kind novel about addiction, desire, belonging, and want that’s destined to become a queer classic.
"Romeo & Seahorse punctures the mythology of love with the tyranny of desire until everything bleeds out onto the carpet of domesticity left outside to rot in the musty weather. Yes, this is a book about addiction that actually hurts—spinning between tragedy and a happy ending, between absolute delusion and cynical collapse, between fire and emptiness, honesty and meltdown. So matter-of-fact that it becomes dissociated, so dissociated that it flails with embodiment, Romeo & Seahorse is a novel that crushes the novel form and hands it to you to smoke in a glass pipe that shatters with your complicity."
—Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Touching the Art
Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
10 people are currently reading
272 people want to read
About the author
Nikolaj Tange Lange
7 books72 followersNikolaj Tange Lange is a Berlin-based writer, musician and adult performer. He's the author of four novels in Danish, most of which deal with Berlin subcultures; from ketamine-fueled techno romance in 'Livet er en fest og så dør man' (Life Is a Party and Then You Die) to nazi accusations on the left in 'Antityskland' ('Anti-Germany').
His latest novel 'Romeo & Seahorse' came out in English translation in 2024. The book is an exploration of romanticism, chemsex, and what the two have in common. Translated by Tange Lange himself, it is his English-language debut.
Originally from Denmark, Tange Lange started his artistic career in the noughties in the Copenhagen trash drag collective 'dunst'. He continued as singer and songwriter in his NSFW electro-punk project Nuclear Family. As a porn performer, he has made films with directors like Courtney Trouble, Pigboy, and Axel Abysse.
His latest novel 'Romeo & Seahorse' came out in English translation in 2024. The book is an exploration of romanticism, chemsex, and what the two have in common. Translated by Tange Lange himself, it is his English-language debut.
Originally from Denmark, Tange Lange started his artistic career in the noughties in the Copenhagen trash drag collective 'dunst'. He continued as singer and songwriter in his NSFW electro-punk project Nuclear Family. As a porn performer, he has made films with directors like Courtney Trouble, Pigboy, and Axel Abysse.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 9, 2025
For a book largely about drugs and fisting, I did connect strongly to it's themes of love and yearning.
September 30, 2024
Nuclear Family - Let's Pretend We're In A Bruce LaBruce Movie
What I appreciate the most about queer novels is the way they implode all sorts of binaries. Here: you can be fisted like a sock puppet and be as sweet and tender as your most used romantic cliché. Physical and emotional, love and sex, loop around until any semblance of difference dissipates undercutting the opposing binaries capitalism and normative compulsory cisheterosexuality demand.
What I appreciate the most about queer novels is the way they implode all sorts of binaries. Here: you can be fisted like a sock puppet and be as sweet and tender as your most used romantic cliché. Physical and emotional, love and sex, loop around until any semblance of difference dissipates undercutting the opposing binaries capitalism and normative compulsory cisheterosexuality demand.
November 17, 2025
Første læsning: En ærlig og moderne historie om kærlighed og begær - sproget tabte mig en gang i mellem men synes historiens umiddelbarhed fungerer rigtig godt
Anden læsning: Jeg synes stadig det er en vild og ærlig, men også sårbar historie om kærlighed og begær. Jeg har dog i denne omgang set på romanen gennem akademiske øjne hvilket har givet den endnu mere dybde. Desuden er jeg blevet ekstrem fascineret af Romeo som karakter og hvordan han, ligesom kærligheden, har et iboende element af deskruktivitet.
Anden læsning: Jeg synes stadig det er en vild og ærlig, men også sårbar historie om kærlighed og begær. Jeg har dog i denne omgang set på romanen gennem akademiske øjne hvilket har givet den endnu mere dybde. Desuden er jeg blevet ekstrem fascineret af Romeo som karakter og hvordan han, ligesom kærligheden, har et iboende element af deskruktivitet.
March 16, 2023
Kæmpe anbefaling! Jeg kunne slet ikke slippe bogen, efter jeg var startet. Virkelig smuk og ærlig kærlighedsfortælling. Fuldstændig fordomsfri fortælling af et chemsexmiljø, de færreste har kendskab til.
May 28, 2025
i can’t remember the last time i was this captivated by a book, pretty sure it rewired something in my brain i can’t quite explain
February 14, 2025
Elskede at den var så fordomsfri og ærlig og tankestrømsagtig. Et spændende syn på kærlighed, jeg ikke har læst om i mange andre bøger. Havde håbet på lidt mere plot
January 29, 2025
endelig gjort den færdig😅😅 super god, er glad for det autofiktive generelt og vildt interessant syn på kærlighed og sex og nærvær. man skal være klar på nogle lange sætninger hvor kommaet nogle gange erstatter punktummet
November 27, 2024
Spectacular ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
February 8, 2024
Vidunderlig skrivestil og tankestrøm, der bliver ved og ved og ved.
October 6, 2024
Fictional Berlin fever dream.
December 12, 2024
"Romeo & Seahorse" is a novel about love, as the narrator points out, but also about so much more. It's about the queer experience of relationships, whether they are with your parents, your partner, with Tina or your gigantic dildo named Seahorse.
Over the course of 170 pages, Nikolaj Tange Lange's I-narrator shares his struggle to find romance and love in the world. From his first naive steps as a teenager, to wild nights in Rome to hazy days in Berlin, the reader is being taken on a journey with the narrator that oftentimes left me struggling to find room to breathe.
It's super hyperrealistic - and both depressing as fuck and uplifting to read. "Romeo & Seahorse" has the intensity of a Dennis Cooper novel, written with the speed of the drug-fueled fever dream of a Berlin night and the tenderness of a mother caressing her newborn.
In my opinion: a soon-to-be cult classic for queer literature.
I also loved all the references to queer movies - they went straight to my letterboxed watch list.
Over the course of 170 pages, Nikolaj Tange Lange's I-narrator shares his struggle to find romance and love in the world. From his first naive steps as a teenager, to wild nights in Rome to hazy days in Berlin, the reader is being taken on a journey with the narrator that oftentimes left me struggling to find room to breathe.
It's super hyperrealistic - and both depressing as fuck and uplifting to read. "Romeo & Seahorse" has the intensity of a Dennis Cooper novel, written with the speed of the drug-fueled fever dream of a Berlin night and the tenderness of a mother caressing her newborn.
In my opinion: a soon-to-be cult classic for queer literature.
I also loved all the references to queer movies - they went straight to my letterboxed watch list.
January 19, 2026
What a perfectly depraved book, and yet I was reading until 2am last night and here I am the next day thinking about it still.
Everyone who has grown up gay knows same sex attraction is just the tip of the iceberg. Being gay is also about how you talk, walk, think, fuck, dream.. the list goes on.
Romeo and seahorse grasps this intimately as it describes the contradictions inherent in gay sex and romance, the push pull of drugs, the battle between self and ego each one of us endures on a daily basis - but perfected by gay people at a young age.
I read this book in horror and frequently tried to put it down. But I always came back, because between the descriptions of fisting exploits gone wrong, I saw my own desire to be devoured and destroyed, if not by love then by something, anything.
Everyone who has grown up gay knows same sex attraction is just the tip of the iceberg. Being gay is also about how you talk, walk, think, fuck, dream.. the list goes on.
Romeo and seahorse grasps this intimately as it describes the contradictions inherent in gay sex and romance, the push pull of drugs, the battle between self and ego each one of us endures on a daily basis - but perfected by gay people at a young age.
I read this book in horror and frequently tried to put it down. But I always came back, because between the descriptions of fisting exploits gone wrong, I saw my own desire to be devoured and destroyed, if not by love then by something, anything.
November 29, 2022
På den ene side så grafisk og væmmelig når selvdestruktion bliver den evige gentagelse i kærlighedens navn, men på den anden side også så fyldt med oprigtig længsel efter mening og ægte kærlighed (i stadig tydeligere modstandsforhold til den håbløse romantik).
September 27, 2024
An intense sprint through romance, love, desire, lies, selfbetrayal & honesty.
August 5, 2025
Berlin love story at its finest <3
October 1, 2024
Almost too real to handle!
July 30, 2025
The search for love and connection in a world where it is easier to find drugs.
A very modern story, told in a modern way - where conventional narrative falls away and the narrator is knowing and playing with crushing the form.
While the last book I read was all plot (and the characters were distorted out of all recognition to human beings on the altar of narrative drive), this is no plot and tons of confession and honesty (even if the main character is lying to his boyfriend, his therapist and himself).
Personally, I will go for truth every time, even though I was sometimes confused by the mixture of artifice and openness.
A very modern story, told in a modern way - where conventional narrative falls away and the narrator is knowing and playing with crushing the form.
While the last book I read was all plot (and the characters were distorted out of all recognition to human beings on the altar of narrative drive), this is no plot and tons of confession and honesty (even if the main character is lying to his boyfriend, his therapist and himself).
Personally, I will go for truth every time, even though I was sometimes confused by the mixture of artifice and openness.
April 16, 2025
For better or worse, this book will stay with me for a long, long time.
“To love is to run together inside a house that’s already on fire.
“To love is to run together inside a house that’s already on fire.
December 26, 2025
Smuk, voldsom og frastødende på en gang. Jeg nød sproget og den næsten tankestrøms-agtige og rablende formulering i nogle af kapitlerne. Måden historien hopper mellem forskellige universer og metaforer er, i min mening, utroligt veludført.
Jeg læste Nikolaj’s første 3 bøger relativt kort tid inden jeg begyndte at læse ‘Romeo & Seahorse’, og jeg holdt af de små referencer til de tidligere historier, der sneg sig ind i fortællingen
Jeg synes specielt også afslutningen var utroligt rørende. Den føles sårbar og følelsesmæssig nøgen; en fin kontrast til de forudgående siders vold og fysiske nøgenhed
Jeg læste Nikolaj’s første 3 bøger relativt kort tid inden jeg begyndte at læse ‘Romeo & Seahorse’, og jeg holdt af de små referencer til de tidligere historier, der sneg sig ind i fortællingen
Jeg synes specielt også afslutningen var utroligt rørende. Den føles sårbar og følelsesmæssig nøgen; en fin kontrast til de forudgående siders vold og fysiske nøgenhed
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January 9, 2024Jeg ved ærligt ikke hvad jeg skal tænke om den her bog. Jeg var lige ved at skrive roman, men den virker for selvbiografisk til at jeg vil sætte den etiket på. Begge dele måske? Jeg ved det ikke.
Jeg lærte en del mere om chemsexmiljøet i Berlin end jeg nogensinde troede jeg ville.
Det er en rodet bog. Ikke på grund af de skiftende fortællevinkler, men fordi det føles som om bogen ikke vil stå ved hvad den er - eller fordi den ikke kan fonde ud af hvad den er. (Eller forfatteren selv?) der bliver brugt så utroligt meget tid på at bearbejde og udrede en masse følelser om længsel og forhold og begær der ikke rigtigt kommer nogen vegne, for så til sidst at slutte meget brat som en form for kærlighedserklæring til en mand som knap nok bliver nævnt hele bogen igennem. Det giver ikke mening for mig. Jeg kan forstå at en del af pointen er at slippe af med en masse skyld og skam over at være polyamorøs, over at monogamiet ikke virker, men det bliver underligt uforløst.
Jeg har der også underligt over at kritisere et narrativ der formentlig er hentet fra det virkelige liv og derfor ikke passer ned i en gængs fortællestruktur. Men når der står roman på forsiden så forventer jeg trods alt at der er en vis struktur. Uden, bliver det som sagt meget rodet.
Jeg har ikke noget problem med de meget lange sætninger eller de gentagne leitmotifs - jeg kan forstå hvis andre er irriterede over det - men igen kunne jeg godt tænke mig at det var mere struktureret, lidt mere “med vilje”. Som det er bliver det for ofte usammenhængende og minder mest af alt om de rablerier man kan forvente fra en der er høj af stoffer. Måske er dét med vilje, jeg synes bare ikke det er særlig vellykket.
Jeg kan forstå forfatteren har skrevet flere bøger inden denne, hvilket faktisk overrasker mig lidt fordi jeg troede - ærligt - at denne var en første roman. Måske fordi noget af indholdet er tyve år gammelt, måske ikke, jeg ved det ikke.
Jeg styrer udenom en stjerne rating i denne omgang fordi jeg kan ikke finde ud af om jeg skal give en stjerne eller tre eller hvad. Jeg læste den på en dag, opslugt, interesseret, og den har givet mig en del at tænke på, og tænke over. Ikke desto mindre synes jeg ikke at det er ligeså uærligt af mig at give den én stjerne som det er at give den fem. Ikke alting skal absolut have en rating.
Jeg lærte en del mere om chemsexmiljøet i Berlin end jeg nogensinde troede jeg ville.
Det er en rodet bog. Ikke på grund af de skiftende fortællevinkler, men fordi det føles som om bogen ikke vil stå ved hvad den er - eller fordi den ikke kan fonde ud af hvad den er. (Eller forfatteren selv?) der bliver brugt så utroligt meget tid på at bearbejde og udrede en masse følelser om længsel og forhold og begær der ikke rigtigt kommer nogen vegne, for så til sidst at slutte meget brat som en form for kærlighedserklæring til en mand som knap nok bliver nævnt hele bogen igennem. Det giver ikke mening for mig. Jeg kan forstå at en del af pointen er at slippe af med en masse skyld og skam over at være polyamorøs, over at monogamiet ikke virker, men det bliver underligt uforløst.
Jeg har der også underligt over at kritisere et narrativ der formentlig er hentet fra det virkelige liv og derfor ikke passer ned i en gængs fortællestruktur. Men når der står roman på forsiden så forventer jeg trods alt at der er en vis struktur. Uden, bliver det som sagt meget rodet.
Jeg har ikke noget problem med de meget lange sætninger eller de gentagne leitmotifs - jeg kan forstå hvis andre er irriterede over det - men igen kunne jeg godt tænke mig at det var mere struktureret, lidt mere “med vilje”. Som det er bliver det for ofte usammenhængende og minder mest af alt om de rablerier man kan forvente fra en der er høj af stoffer. Måske er dét med vilje, jeg synes bare ikke det er særlig vellykket.
Jeg kan forstå forfatteren har skrevet flere bøger inden denne, hvilket faktisk overrasker mig lidt fordi jeg troede - ærligt - at denne var en første roman. Måske fordi noget af indholdet er tyve år gammelt, måske ikke, jeg ved det ikke.
Jeg styrer udenom en stjerne rating i denne omgang fordi jeg kan ikke finde ud af om jeg skal give en stjerne eller tre eller hvad. Jeg læste den på en dag, opslugt, interesseret, og den har givet mig en del at tænke på, og tænke over. Ikke desto mindre synes jeg ikke at det er ligeså uærligt af mig at give den én stjerne som det er at give den fem. Ikke alting skal absolut have en rating.
September 24, 2024
A book that sucks you right in and then sticks in your brain for a long time to come. After having finished it, quotes keep turning up in my brain. I love to open this book at a random page and just rereading the storyline that pops up, and every time I find something new that makes me feel excited, sad, touched, understood or terrified, while making me cry or smile or both at the same time.
Nikolaj Tange Lange has a way of writing super poetic and beautiful while at the same time being really easy to read. There is a lot of complex thoughts and feelings that are put into words so elegantly you just feel like somebody really skilled told you sth in a way where it just clicks.
A big recommendation, I absolutely loved it!
Nikolaj Tange Lange has a way of writing super poetic and beautiful while at the same time being really easy to read. There is a lot of complex thoughts and feelings that are put into words so elegantly you just feel like somebody really skilled told you sth in a way where it just clicks.
A big recommendation, I absolutely loved it!
December 19, 2024
Author Nikolaj Tange Lange delivers blunt force trauma via his wordage, with night after night of grinding, risky, chemically-induced behaviours. His characters do not leave you with much empathy for them, and as such I am going back to less edgier ground!
August 18, 2025
I expected to enjoy this more, as some of my favourite books are about club and sub-cultures in major cities like Berlin, but the protagonist just frustrated me. I know that’s the point in some places but it just made them feel really unreachable for me.
September 24, 2024
dragon dildo INCINERATES polyamorous meth-head berliner’s arsehole. it’s funny cos, if you know anything about any of these labels before going into it, it won’t shock you
May 8, 2025
Maybe I'm just an old stick in the mud but I genuinely do not think that books primarily focused on a narrator cyclically causing themselves anal trauma then describing it in detail alongside details of their bowel movements needs to exist. If there is a deeper meaning to this book, I didn't get it and to be quite frank, I don't think I want to.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews