All Neon Like Love

by Dan Gennoe

Every morning he wakes up alone, thinking of Sophie.

Thinking he can still smell her perfume and feel her presence even though he knows it’s been months since she stopped taking his calls. Every morning he wakes from a night spent with the memory of her touch and the warmth she brought him. Every morning, his first thought is of her.

One morning he wakes up and decides that the only way to move on is to find her and win her back.

It’s only then that he begins to realise how little he ever really knew about Sophie...

Set in London and Paris, Dan Gennoe’s debut is a dark dream of a novel, a sensual meditation on loneliness in the city and the grey area between love and obsession.

282 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2015

About the author

Dan Gennoe is a London-based writer and novelist. A former music journalist, he's written cover features, interviews and reviews for Esquire, GQ, Arena, FHM, Q, Mojo, The Independent and The Mail On Sunday. He's mixed with rappers and rockstars, ghosted the memoirs of a celebrity chef and for a decade ran music editorial in the UK for Google and YouTube. He now writes stories about lost souls and their need to be found. His debut novel, All Neon Like Love, was published in 2015. The long awaited follow-up, Floating Points, is due for publication in 2025.

Reviews

[Helen Marquis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great debut novel that had me hooked from the start, as it drops into the mind of a lonely man, obsessed with two lost loves - his brother, Peter who has died in a car crash and a woman called Sophie, with whom he's in a decidedly unhealthy relationship.
Set in London and Paris, the story effortlessly flips between the shinier happier times of the past and the bleak emptiness of the present, as the narrative reveals itself piece by piece. The writing is excellent, as we sink deeper and deeper into the obsessive thoughts of our protagonist, with scenes run through in minute detail, events dissected and unlikely hidden meanings extrapolated from the slightest of signals.
As Sophie's facades slide away and the truth is revealed, the old adage "the course of true love never did run smooth" proves to be highly prescient.
All in all a great read that had me gripped from start to finish. A highly accomplished debut.

[A.J. Sefton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an awkward paradox when a new writer pens an acclaimed debut novel. I am excited by the prospect of a fresh voice, an undiscovered talent waiting to be unwrapped like a gift. Then the potential disappointment. My expectations were too high, the gift is glitter and not gold. Added to this is the fact that this is a love story, which I am not generally keen on. But hang on, this is a dark love story. I decide to take the plunge.

The opening describes a scene, a memory that flashes like neon lights. I love how Gennoe uses this imagery, sentences written like poetry and flashing lights, in short bursts. We can sense the passion, the longing, the memories.

The rest of the book focuses on how our hero tries to find his lost love by checking up on her and following into another country. The dark element becomes apparent: he is a stalker. And although he may believe that he is in love with this mysterious woman, in reality she is his fantasy and infatuation. The sex is fantastic, obviously.

Gennoe uses a repetition technique of describing unknown people that I find quite amusing. I guess that is how some of our minds work and certainly for the main character. For example, the 'hot, almost Goth barrister' and the 'smart, middle-aged man in the grey suit' terms are used every time the character is referenced. Some readers find this style a bit off-putting. To me, it is almost child-like, which I think the protagonist is.

The neon lights is an apt symbol for this love affair. Bright, alluring but also cheap and superficial. He knows practically nothing about the love of his life, not where she lives, her friends or just about anything else. That is exciting to him. She is confident, alluring...and the rest. He is a stereotypical man who is easily distracted by other women, which appears to be his downfall.

This is a detailed book where I feel as if I know the main character. Not too keen on him though. It is an uncomfortably drawn out tale, possibly deliberately so, but just a bt too much for me to the point where I was glad it was finished. Still, it is a great debut novel and I'm sure there will be more from Dan Gennoe.

[Mark Butterworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intricately-written debut novel. The jarring time-hopping narrative grips you slowly but surely, drawing you in to the troubled mind of the protagonist. This is - in almost equal parts - a love letter to London and Paris alongside an intense meditation on loneliness and obsession.

[Heatherly Hardin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting perspective into the mind of a grieving man scorned by the woman he loves. The main character struggles with all of his losses, eventually moving into obsession.

[Peter Groves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. First, no novel with literary pretensions should use "alright". It also seemed to get he/him and she/her mixed up, though that could just have been over-complicated constructions, and it changed tenses unexpectedly a couple of times. I found it sometimes hard to follow, with too much time-shifting and much disorientating repetition ("hang on - didn't I just read that sentence?"). Although the journey was what I had expected, and I found it quite satisfying, I didn't care much for any of the characters with whom I took it, none of whom I felt I knew well, and even the much-hyped descriptions of places seemed pretty ordinary to me.

[Alison Large · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly well written but difficult to feel any sympathy for the main protagonist, possibly one of the most self-centred men who has made his way on to the page. I would not want to be the woman who ends up with him and I fear for Audrey’s well-being as she becomes the new focus of his obsession.

[Kazz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!
Fab little book.

[Stephani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. I have mixed emotions about this book. The story takes place in both London and Paris, while the main character dwells and reminisces about the woman that he loves while stalking her. I thought something was fishy from the beginning when he knew nothing about her, but somehow was so in love. So much so that he slept with his best friend and continued to stalk his love to try to explain himself, only to find that she was married. I hate to say it, but I saw the end coming. Reading the first 3/4 of the book, I don't know how many "thought" and "wishes" and "remembers" I read, but it was becoming very redundant. I didn't want to finish the book, but I am one of those people who have to finish a book that they start. By the last 1/4, the pieces were coming together to produce an ending that I was pleased to see happen. It was a good story of a man so obsessed and in love with a woman that he didn't understand that his stalking was not acceptable. The downfall is that it didn't get good until the last portion of the book. The book was very repetitive with so much thinking and dwelling at the very beginning, that I didn't feel sorry for the character and wanted to tell him to just suck it up and get over it...but what kind of story would that be? Some (small) portions were pretty much verbatim, but they were his reminiscing, (but still...) that I just skimmed over them. Overall an alright book with what could be an unexpected twist at the end for some readers.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone that has been ravished by love will be able to relate to the memories of Sophie that fill our man with a spoiled heart. Sophie lingers in every nook and cranny, every single place in his life. He wakes with need for her. The problem is can we really ever know the ones we spend our hearts on? Do we overlook things in our life in the name of sating our obsessions? I always think of a quote by the author Alice Hoffman, "Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs." Love certainly makes us feel like lunatics. The begining starts off more like a meditation on desire and need, and the turn in the story was unexpected. A different take on the one meant for us.

[Kim Bamber]

Thank you NetGalley and Joe Bones for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ALL NEON LIKE LOVE is a good debut novel. The story flips back and forth between the past (happy times) and present (sad and bleak). I liked the story but didn't really enjoy the flipping back and forth. The main character is obsessed with Sophie; the love of this life. He thinks everything through so much but hardly ever does anything about it. I was disappointed in this aspect.
I did like this novel in the end despite those areas which I criticized.

[Olia · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC from Netgalley for an honest review

I am afraid I found the book boring.
The premise intrigued me, cover is lovely, I liked the jumpy timeline and the recollections vs reality aspect, but... honestly, I was bored.
The main character is too mopey - and yes, arguably, he has several reasons to be, but I felt the bleakness was too stretched, and his musings too detailed.

Sorry, not for me.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC!*

Interesting writing style! It's the perfect book for people who like to read into every little detail. At times, the main character frustrated me a lot. He thinks too much but doesn't act enough. When he does, it's all wrong. It wasn't really the book for me, but I know many people will enjoy it.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I found this book well written, the protagonist made me angry. He is narcissistic, abusive and entitled. He has no respect for the women in his life. He is cold and emotionally abusive to one and he harasses the other. As a result, I found the ending creepy, which I doubt was the author's intention.

[Gillian Ashton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good debut.
The story went between the UK and France and it showed a tale of lonliness,obsession and love that is now lost,both familiar and intimate love.

It was easy to reda and follow. The cover in itself was appealing. A good Holiday read Id say.