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Skyscraper
A Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Set in modern day Manhattan, Skyscraper (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist) is the story of Atticus, a down on his luck architect who stumbles into an S&M bar and meets a young man who changes the direction of his life. What begins as a random pick-up evolves into an intense game of sexual domination as Atticus finds himself wildly invigorated both as a man and an architect.
As his new relationship deepens, his creativity simultaneously catches fire and he lands a prime architectural job at his firm designing a bold new high rise tower. Soon his two worlds collide as the novel takes a Kafkian turn and the thin line between reality and fantasy, pleasure and pain threatens to explode.
As his new relationship deepens, his creativity simultaneously catches fire and he lands a prime architectural job at his firm designing a bold new high rise tower. Soon his two worlds collide as the novel takes a Kafkian turn and the thin line between reality and fantasy, pleasure and pain threatens to explode.
- GenresLGBT
138 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2016
3 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Scott Alexander Hess
11 books66 followersScott Alexander Hess is the author of eight novels, including Skyscraper, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and The Butcher’s Sons, which was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015. His writing has appeared in HuffPost, Genre Magazine, The Fix, Thema Literary Review, and elsewhere. Hess co-wrote "Tom in America," an award-winning short film, starring Sally Kirkland and Burt Young. He teaches fiction writing at Gotham Writers Workshop and curates Hot Lit, an LGBTQ+ themed monthly newsletter. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Hess lives in New York City with his husband.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 1, 2016
4.5 Stars - a flip of the coin but rounded down on here
There are no two ways about it, Scott Alexander Hess writes beautifully. His prose is imaginative and refined, always on point for the premise. But I’ve already noted that previously on my review of The Butcher’s Sons. Kirkus and Rainbow Awards may have given mention to that same book, but it was also one of my Books of the Year in 2015. If you want to read a well written piece of gay fiction, something where you feel the tension and fairly cloak yourself in the atmosphere, the literary eroticism, complete with intriguing characters, then I can highly recommend Skyscraper. 4.5 Stars!
There are no two ways about it, Scott Alexander Hess writes beautifully. His prose is imaginative and refined, always on point for the premise. But I’ve already noted that previously on my review of The Butcher’s Sons. Kirkus and Rainbow Awards may have given mention to that same book, but it was also one of my Books of the Year in 2015. If you want to read a well written piece of gay fiction, something where you feel the tension and fairly cloak yourself in the atmosphere, the literary eroticism, complete with intriguing characters, then I can highly recommend Skyscraper. 4.5 Stars!
February 19, 2017
One of the stranger books I have read - it was almost dreamlike and still trying to put the pieces together after it ended - no epilogue left me wondering " what now ?"
April 11, 2017
This tight novella is a lot like the best work by Bret Easton Ellis--darkly twisted, but not in a sensationalist way. These characters are still human, though distanced from themselves in a postmodern world of beautiful surfaces hiding dark secrets. I only have one complaint and that's that I wanted it to go on for at least two hundred more pages. HIGHLY recommended.
August 6, 2022
Skyscraper is a strange and lovely book, and one I'm happy to have found. It's fair to say the novel wasn't quite what I expected when I first cracked it open--in fact, it surprised me with how smart and ambitious it was. It's definitely one of those books that rewards re-reading, and I'm excited to go back to it again, knowing what I know now.
Beyond that, it's hard for me to really sell this book in great detail, but I'll try.
What I loved so much was the tone. I can't replicate that in a short review, and I don't want to spoil it. (Can tone even be spoiled? After reading this novel, I'd say, "Yeah. Maybe.")
Here's what I can tell you: an intense-but-quiet yearning drives our protagonist through the first half of the book, and I think there's a certain type of reader (perhaps especially a certain type of gay/queer reader) who will get Atticus immediately. Tad is just as fascinating: he's both brutish and vulnerable, but what I love most is how much we don't know about him. Hess leaves a ton up to our imagination. (I've noticed some readers haven't loved this ambiguity, but Atticus's story sort of centers on the search for meaning and connection, so the mystery surrounding this secondary character feels right as rain.)
And finally, there's a scene in the book--I could pinpoint it for you, but I loved discovering it on my own--where we sort of go through the looking glass. Things get slippery and strange, and I stopped trusting what I thought I already knew. It's such a neat trick--Hess pulls the rug out from under me, but I never felt betrayed by the change in tone. I was just intrigued, and felt driven to press forward.
I haven't mentioned how hot the book is. It's categorized as erotica, and I think that fits, although there really isn't a ton of very-explicit-on-the-page-sex. It's in there, and it's kinky and slow burn and prickly, but this is very much a novel of desire. The need, rather than the fulfillment, gives this book its intensity.
Beyond that, it's hard for me to really sell this book in great detail, but I'll try.
What I loved so much was the tone. I can't replicate that in a short review, and I don't want to spoil it. (Can tone even be spoiled? After reading this novel, I'd say, "Yeah. Maybe.")
Here's what I can tell you: an intense-but-quiet yearning drives our protagonist through the first half of the book, and I think there's a certain type of reader (perhaps especially a certain type of gay/queer reader) who will get Atticus immediately. Tad is just as fascinating: he's both brutish and vulnerable, but what I love most is how much we don't know about him. Hess leaves a ton up to our imagination. (I've noticed some readers haven't loved this ambiguity, but Atticus's story sort of centers on the search for meaning and connection, so the mystery surrounding this secondary character feels right as rain.)
And finally, there's a scene in the book--I could pinpoint it for you, but I loved discovering it on my own--where we sort of go through the looking glass. Things get slippery and strange, and I stopped trusting what I thought I already knew. It's such a neat trick--Hess pulls the rug out from under me, but I never felt betrayed by the change in tone. I was just intrigued, and felt driven to press forward.
I haven't mentioned how hot the book is. It's categorized as erotica, and I think that fits, although there really isn't a ton of very-explicit-on-the-page-sex. It's in there, and it's kinky and slow burn and prickly, but this is very much a novel of desire. The need, rather than the fulfillment, gives this book its intensity.
March 26, 2017
The writing is beautiful but I expected more from the relationship. In the end we still don't know much about "Tad" and we're left to assume how things play out.
January 10, 2019
I just really couldn’t get into this book. I can see how others would like it but it just wasn’t for me
May 27, 2024
These people need a safe word.
May 10, 2020
It was a good read.
September 12, 2017
Skyscraper could have been a torturously complicated book…but part of its charm is that it simplifies the whole subject of midlife–or at least midcareer–crisis to a nearly transparent narrative everyone can identify with as it hints at the individual complexities beneath. It’s a little wonder of a book that packs a great deal into a small package, and it will leave you thinking about the relationship between success and failure.
May 18, 2017
Minimal and intense
Erotic and touching. Well-written complicated characters, an interesting plot. I stayed interested because I needed to know what would happen in the main relationship, and nothing was ever for certain.
Erotic and touching. Well-written complicated characters, an interesting plot. I stayed interested because I needed to know what would happen in the main relationship, and nothing was ever for certain.
December 30, 2017
accidental discovery at my LGBT library--
April 19, 2024
Author Scott Alexander Hess tackled reckless promiscuity in his superbly salacious "Diary of a Sex Addict" and profiled a man's attempt to rebuild his life after rehab in the raucous romance "Bergdorf Boys." His latest novel, "Skyscraper," is every much the page turner as his previous works, but with more of an everyman protagonist whose drastic changes in behavior and attitude surprise no one more than himself.
Atticus is an independently wealthy albeit lonely Manhattan architect approaching middle age who has been suffering from a severe lack of creative energy yet manages to stay in the game working for a firm run by his college chum, Darrin. When Atticus meets Tad, his personal and professional life take an interesting turn, to say the least.
Tad is a mysterious, sculpted, sexually dominant young man who helps Atticus realize how much he enjoys submissive roleplay. Right around the time he finds himself enslaved by Tad's authority, Darrin presents Atticus with a career-making opportunity to design and build a high rise in Mexico City, known as the Wolfe project, and as luck would have it, Tobias Wolfe is impressed with his unconventional vision.
As part of the undertaking with Wolfe, Atticus becomes caught in a web of intrigue that includes project manager, Aziz, a fashion magazine editor, Eva, and the enigmatic investor, Taylor.
Atticus and Tad's atypical relationship has moments (albeit rare) when they resemble a more traditional couple, in particular, when Atticus invites Tad to join him at social events related to the project. Taylor, however, has an especially odd rapport with Tad, which could ultimately put everything at risk.
On its own, the interplay between Atticus and Tad has the model of an enticing erotic romance novel, complete with heated and occasionally violent exchanges. As narrator, the author gives Atticus an ominous voice and tone that evolves from defeatist to decadent, which makes both his character and his story all the more compelling.
The overarching plot of architecture and the players involved in the Wolfe project arouse plenty of curiosity and provide an even clearer picture of Atticus who is seemingly willing to submit both at home and at work.
For a relatively short novel, "Skyscraper" certainly leaves a lasting impression, and with its unusually perplexing ending, the author trusts the reader to craft his own conclusion -- unless he has a sequel in mind.
Atticus is an independently wealthy albeit lonely Manhattan architect approaching middle age who has been suffering from a severe lack of creative energy yet manages to stay in the game working for a firm run by his college chum, Darrin. When Atticus meets Tad, his personal and professional life take an interesting turn, to say the least.
Tad is a mysterious, sculpted, sexually dominant young man who helps Atticus realize how much he enjoys submissive roleplay. Right around the time he finds himself enslaved by Tad's authority, Darrin presents Atticus with a career-making opportunity to design and build a high rise in Mexico City, known as the Wolfe project, and as luck would have it, Tobias Wolfe is impressed with his unconventional vision.
As part of the undertaking with Wolfe, Atticus becomes caught in a web of intrigue that includes project manager, Aziz, a fashion magazine editor, Eva, and the enigmatic investor, Taylor.
Atticus and Tad's atypical relationship has moments (albeit rare) when they resemble a more traditional couple, in particular, when Atticus invites Tad to join him at social events related to the project. Taylor, however, has an especially odd rapport with Tad, which could ultimately put everything at risk.
On its own, the interplay between Atticus and Tad has the model of an enticing erotic romance novel, complete with heated and occasionally violent exchanges. As narrator, the author gives Atticus an ominous voice and tone that evolves from defeatist to decadent, which makes both his character and his story all the more compelling.
The overarching plot of architecture and the players involved in the Wolfe project arouse plenty of curiosity and provide an even clearer picture of Atticus who is seemingly willing to submit both at home and at work.
For a relatively short novel, "Skyscraper" certainly leaves a lasting impression, and with its unusually perplexing ending, the author trusts the reader to craft his own conclusion -- unless he has a sequel in mind.
May 12, 2020
Even though this was like no other book I have ever read and wasn't really my cup of tea, the writing and story line was excellent. Many things I couldn't wrap my head around but that is me. I can see why many loved it. The writing style is very good as is the storytelling.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews