Keep Austin Weird: A Lesbian Superhero Love Story for Grown-Ups

by Kyle G. Roesler

Residents of Austin, Texas so value individualism, most (but not all!) of them rally around the phrase, "Keep Austin Weird." In the midst of that off-kilter vibe are two mildly weird kindergarten teachers, Eleanor Cooprider and Kim Park. One of them possesses a superpower and the other recognizes superpowers in others (and she can talk to plants, though they never answer). Once they share this super secret, their mutual attraction blossoms into love, and there is nothing weird about that. To summarize this summary via the novel's lengthy subtitle (A Lesbian Superhero Love Story for Grown-Ups): Lesbian, because there are women loving women (but not a romance novel or erotica). Superhero, because of a single superpower (but not science fiction or fantasy). A Love Story - see Lesbian, above. And for Grown-Ups, because no one leaps tall buildings in a single bound or wears a crime-fighting onesie. But enough summarizing: please turn to Page 1 and read the subsequent pages sequentially. Thank you for your cooperation.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 2015

About the author

The author Kyle G. Roesler began using the pseudonym Mary Jane when he was a freshman at Harvey Mudd College and started writing a weekly column for the student paper, "The Muddraker." Being a shy, reserved youth, he felt he would be more forthright using a pseudonym. Since 80% of the students were male, a woman's name garnered more attention. And, the name Mary Jane seemed nicely disreputable. The rest is a brief footnote in history. Kyle has gone on to write screenplays, stage plays, and four novels ("Fate," "Saba," "Keep Austin Weird" and "The Navel of the World," all in print on Amazon). He is probably the greatest living American writer no one has ever heard of.

Reviews

[Kara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another 1* based on the sample.

I was so excited to find this - a lesbian superhero audiobook I missed! I almost bought it not even knowing who Mary Jane is, or what she sounds like. Glad I listened to the sample first!!!

As it turns out, Mary Jane sounds like a guy. A guy who can't even talk well. WTF?

Ahh....it turns out that publisher "Kyle G. Roesler" is "the author formerly known as Mary Jane".

What's with people???

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a word, irritating. Kim was basically a boppy child throughout the whole book (Bitchy Barista? Was that supposed to be endearing? Because it was not) and only has one conversation with Eleanor the entire book that touches on any real topic. I also wanted to punch Eleanor in the face for berating children and battered women with what their careers should be. There was no character growth for either of them.

I like the vignette style of story-telling, but Roesler handles it poorly. There was also no plot, and his awkward self-referential humor made me want to throw my kindle across several rooms.

[treehugger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Life is too short to read books you don't like. And I don't like terrible books.

[Tristan Wolf · Rating 1 out of 5]

“We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.” -- Robert Wilensky

The 50-Page Test is an idea put forth by Prof. Timothy Spurgin (Lawrence University) that one should give any book 50 pages to get going; if it hasn't captured your attention by that time, perhaps it's not for you, or perhaps you should set it aside for another time. Giving this book the benefit of 50 pages was a superhuman sacrifice on my part, but I did my best, and despite the colossal detriment to my sanity, sensibility, and suspension of disbelief, I did get that far. Barely.

As a writer myself, I do my best to be constructive and supportive wherever possible. Sometimes, however, a book is simply so awful that it defies all attempts at support, or even forgiveness, and this is one of those times. It's bad enough when a book is written in present tense -- a format generally reserved for pornographic online role-play -- but it's worse when the tense shifts from present to past, or vice versa, sometimes in the same sentence. Further, also like online role-play, the third-person limited perspective changes from character to character within the same segment of story. (It is not "third person omniscient" if one character cannot fathom something another character might be thinking, simply in order to hide a fact, clue, or characteristic from the reader.) Add to this an atrociously poor use of simple mechanics (punctuation, grammar, etc.), and the book becomes unreadable after only three pages, much less 50.

I was unable to find the plot, perhaps because it doesn't reveal itself in the first 50 pages. I can see that the writer was unfamiliar with her subject matter, since she describes adapting the television production of Charles M. Schulz's A Charlie Brown Christmas and includes both Woodstock (not found in any Schulz work until the 1970s, and CBC premiered in 1965) and Snoopy as "the World War I flying ace," which does not happen until the Hallowe'en special (first aired in 1966). The character is described as adapting the script "from a VHS tape" of the show, so the error is not the character's. Other issues over which I might take the author to task include the irritating number of asides to the reader (when they are not part of the character's thoughts or nature) and a general lack of ambience or location outside of those meant to promote (for example) "real Texas BBQ." (Confession: That's one of the very few things about Texas that i miss.)

Please note that I have no problem with any of the subtitle's concepts (lesbian, superhero, love story, or even Austin TX, where I lived for some years). I have no problem with self-publication, which may be the only way that a great many modern authors (including myself) are able to avoid the razor-studded meat grinders of the ridiculously inbred publishing cartels of the U.S. I do have a problem with an author who cannot present well-edited, properly-constructed, coherent descriptions and ideas. For all I know, the plot may be an absolute corker; however, within a very few pages, anyone even remotely conversant with standard English will be in far too much pain to look for it. At the very least, Ms. Jane, hire a good editor? I know a few who could help. Otherwise, I fully agree: Keep Austin weird. It's one of the handful of things about the state of Texas that I could care to retain.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the title as expositional as this one, the reader pretty much has an idea of what to expect. And on those promises the book makes good...Austin is presented sufficiently quirky to pass or weird (especially considering the straight laced narrow minded abyss surrounding it), there is a superpower (albeit very mild), there are lesbians (although it's all very PG) and yes, they are adult. There are also stereotype defying grotesquely vivid carnivorous scenes to make any vegetarian cringe. The story is very strongly dialogue driven, it often reads like a play. There is plenty of humor, some of it is quite funny, some of it is too much (for example the character of Kim seems upbeat to over the top level, no one's that on all the time). It's a nice story, nice, mild, PG, all those adjectives seem apt. It isn't great, but it's quaint, sweet, inoffensive, cute. The author, male despite the pseudonym, did a solid job of creating reasonably believable and realistic female characters, which is pretty impressive. Even Austin won't make Texas appealing, but nice of it to be there quirking it up all the same.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I get much enjoyed this book. Ellinore is an elementary school guidance counselor with a super power. When she touches someone she can see visions of that person's best self. When she meets Kim, a kindergarten teacher at the school where she works, she sees her best self as being a percussionist playing the timpani in a symphony orchestra. When Kim gets her to tell her what she has seen, Kim eventually leaves teaching to pursue a career in music.

Kim and Ellinore become lovers first and then life partners. However, there is absolutely no sex in this book. The closest they get is exchanging a hug and kiss from time to time. This book suffers not at all from the lack of sex either. In fact it proves that is completely possible to have gay characters without sex and have an awesome story.

I will be reading more books from this author!

[Adrian McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep Austin Weird, like all of Mary Jane's stories, gets to me through it's amazingly vivid characters. Mary Jane begins with an odd, outlandish premise, but the characters are so realistic, you'll believe every word. I believe that's the secret to Mary Jane's emotional punches: not the odd turns of the peculiar story, but the undeniably human cast that you'd want to hang out with in real life, and not just because one of them has a superpower.

So get to know Eleanor and Kim. You will fall in love with them as they fall in love with each other in what might be one of the quirkiest cities in the U.S.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eleanor Cooprider has a superpower and when Kim Park convinces her to spill the beans over BBQ, they both fall a little bit in love with each other. Eleanor’s superpower is nothing so thrilling as super strength or teleportation, but it is absolutely unique and, like in any good superhero story, wrought with problems. This story is so sweet and honest as it chronicles the relationship and struggles of these two women as they make their way through the years together finding love and meaning in their own gifts. I laughed, I cried, and I empathized with striving to feel like you are making a difference.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for a Texas book club.

Be all you can be is not just an Army motto to Eleanor. Fortunately Kim figures out that Eleanor has a super power an Therein lies a tale. And yes there is a City Market in Luring, Tx. Lots of fun and laughs but I liked the Bitchin' Barista best.

[Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

This was a good experience. The book is pretty much about the superpower, the fact that they're lesbians have nothing to do with the plot. Their relationship is important though. I'd reread and recommend this book.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...#

[Tamilyn White · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried but I could not get into this story. It felt tedious and labored so I quit at 40% through. Maybe it gets better. I'll never know.

[Freddie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giving it one star feels a bit harsh, but giving it two is too much, for sure. 1.5.

Where do I even start. Firstly, there are several moments throughout the book in which it is very, very clear that this is a man writing two women. The long, weird descriptions of both the two main characters and the way it was repeated how neither of them should eat much more calories was.. not great.

There is not much chemistry between Kim en Eleanor, and their actual relationship (the lesbian part from the subtitle) really does not evolve much on screen. The superhero part of the title is even more bullshit to be honest. Eleanor has a 'superpower' where she essentially sees a vision of the person she touches in the future, of what would be 'their best self'. Not actually the future of the person, just what they could potentially. That's it. That's the only superpower in the whole novel.
It's also awfully convenient that only Kim ever finds out about this superpower only three months after they met, and no one else ever realises even when they have been in Eleanor's live for years.

Eleanor is annoying, manipulative, and really really whiney. Part of this is portrayed as her character flaw. which she sort of acknowledges and starts to negate towards the end but definitely not all of it. Kim feels a bit manic pixie dream girl adjacent. She is quirky, just ups and leaves her career based on whatever Eleanor says, and just feels more like the concept of a character than an actually fleshed out character.

I also disliked the narrator of the story, who would interrupt the story with some weird fourth-wall breaks every now and then. It didn't help with the attachment to the characters and just the general flow of the narrative. I will say, it did really make me want to try Texan Barbecue food.

All-in-all, I would not necessarily recommend it unless you are a big fan of Austin, then it might be somewhat fun, or if you are very very desperate for some mediocre lesbian content.

[Flor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Based mainly in conversational writing, the interactions between characters were not engaging and rather mundane in terms of storytelling. It did not move the story forward, although, story-wise there was not much to tell in general. Mostly page-filler, chapter after chapter, nothing really happened...

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

while there is a payoff in the end, if there is a plot, it is almost impossible to pinpoint. there is little flow to the story, there a major jumps in time that make the whole thing seem fractured and disconnected

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was this a waste of time? I don't know. I liked being reminded of Boba Tea. I like that one of the main characters was able to see into other people's future so they could become their best selves. But honestly I felt cheated for the most part. I felt the characters were rather flat. The relationships were weird. There was crying that seemed unnecessary. Come to find out, the author is not female. Mary Jane is a male writing about a lesbian couple. Sure he saved himself some remnant of grace in that he didn't try to throw in deep emotional feelings or erotic entanglements. That is always a tell-tale sign of honesty. And he must be writing what he knows and loves with 'super powers' and the tea. But the book was just too hard to get into and truly enjoy.

Worst of all? It is all written in present-tense. Except in action-pack books, I find this trick to be disarming. It makes the story so unreal. Ugh!

But plenty of people love this book, so go for it. You may like it too!

[katholtz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoped from something better

I Liked the lesbian relationship. I Liked scenes from Austin. It moved kind of slow. I would not recommend to others.