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Nights & Sharks
Dan and Nathan were never supposed to meet. They live on different continents, with different pasts and different secrets. But Nathan visits his childhood friend Jonah, who has moved to Australia, and Jonah needs to tell him something about Dan.
Two writers tell one story of hunger and intimacy, of violence and shame, of sex and release. Two voices to track the movements and hidings of Dan and Nathan, as they navigate through longing and lust, lies and deceptions, and the streets and river of Brisbane.
Two writers tell one story of hunger and intimacy, of violence and shame, of sex and release. Two voices to track the movements and hidings of Dan and Nathan, as they navigate through longing and lust, lies and deceptions, and the streets and river of Brisbane.
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Published December 8, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 2, 2024
Nate and Jonah have been friends for years. From exploring their bodies as teenagers, to drunken nights in college and weekends away as adults, their bond has always been there, but is starting to fray. Especially when Jonah moves to Australia.
When Jonah invites Nate to visit him in Australia for a month, he has no idea what he’s walking into. “I’ve fu*ked…a guy,” the revelation from Jonah comes early into the trip. Dan. And so brings the complicated triangle between the three.
Dan is a doctoral student at one of the local universities, writing his thesis on a local (queer?) author, who meets Jonah in a bar one night while Jonah’s wife is out of town. Dan has a rule, one time only, but it’s one he breaks for Jonah.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse, Jonah unable to get Dan out of his head. Nate obsessing over Jonah attraction to Dan and battling his own. Dan inquisitive about the history of Jonah and Nate.
Over the course of the month, the story jumps between chapters from Nate and Dans POV as we learn more about each of the three men. Initially I liked the three, but as you read more and more through you start to realise that all three of these men are terrible people, playing on their own insecurities to one up the other, to push each other to places where they shouldn’t go.
As the month comes to a close, everything comes to a culmination where you are left wondering if anyone will remain standing when the dust settles. Or will everyone just walk away and continue to be shi**y people?
I really enjoyed this, it was a wild ride, with lots of bumps, plenty of spice and a tonne of drama, but it all made sense. None of it seemed out of place, there weren’t sex scenes thrown in just for the sake of it, everything had its place and was placed well.
I still have some questions, and things I wish had happened, but at the end of the day, the story served its purpose
When Jonah invites Nate to visit him in Australia for a month, he has no idea what he’s walking into. “I’ve fu*ked…a guy,” the revelation from Jonah comes early into the trip. Dan. And so brings the complicated triangle between the three.
Dan is a doctoral student at one of the local universities, writing his thesis on a local (queer?) author, who meets Jonah in a bar one night while Jonah’s wife is out of town. Dan has a rule, one time only, but it’s one he breaks for Jonah.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse, Jonah unable to get Dan out of his head. Nate obsessing over Jonah attraction to Dan and battling his own. Dan inquisitive about the history of Jonah and Nate.
Over the course of the month, the story jumps between chapters from Nate and Dans POV as we learn more about each of the three men. Initially I liked the three, but as you read more and more through you start to realise that all three of these men are terrible people, playing on their own insecurities to one up the other, to push each other to places where they shouldn’t go.
As the month comes to a close, everything comes to a culmination where you are left wondering if anyone will remain standing when the dust settles. Or will everyone just walk away and continue to be shi**y people?
I really enjoyed this, it was a wild ride, with lots of bumps, plenty of spice and a tonne of drama, but it all made sense. None of it seemed out of place, there weren’t sex scenes thrown in just for the sake of it, everything had its place and was placed well.
I still have some questions, and things I wish had happened, but at the end of the day, the story served its purpose
May 29, 2023
I’m not sure what this is attempting to be. Erotic fiction, perhaps? The writing is not smart or clever or witty. Other than a handful of sequences, it’s not even arousing. The “intimacy” is merely functional—little to no sensory description.
Once again, I was forced to take multiple breaks. And not the good (I gotta take care of something…) kinda breaks. Not the breaks one would expect with the subject matter. Breaks to stop myself from skimming. Breaks because my interest is not held.
The book is plagued by structural issues—sentence framework, adjective and adverb placement, and punctuation.
There’s not an abundance of variety in Ben’s toolbox. Every character he writes is either himself or a version of himself.
The two POV characters get cheap thrills from “seducing” men. It’s juvenile. Anyone with game was doing this way before they were, and anyone with maturity outgrew it. They’re not repressed, so they just end up sounding lecherous. They seem like they’re trying to give off player/playboy vibes, but they come off as old and sad men…chasing spent youth as they chase orgasms.
The irony is thick when Ben…I mean Nate…is taken aback that someone finds him hot but doesn’t want to screw on the first date. Quelle horreur.
“He’s still a teenage boy at heart. Life is a permanent pissing contest. With you, often, but with himself, always.”
Nate is an extremely selfish top. Doesn’t give head, and rarely rims. Adrian definitely deserves better, so it’s pleasing when he calls Nate out on his rubbish. Same for Tom, calling Dan out.
“Jesus, Nathan. What kind of world do you live in where everything guys do is just to get their rocks off?”
The few times Nate has authentic emotions and not just sensations, it makes me want to recoil from him. He’s clearly troubled, but again, there’s no substantial introspection in that vein.
“I had been wrong. It was we who were broken.”
It’s a relief when Dan finally does have some great self-reflection. He finally realizes how messed up and alone he is, and he wants to fix it.
If Nate weren’t so astonishingly self-absorbed, he would see Jonah for the rapey degenerate that he is.
The scene by the pool with Jonah and Dan is appalling. To later attempt to justify that as some sort of empowering move is repugnant.
Dan and Nate are hot together. And they actually talk...sometimes.
The ending is not fulfilling.
“…eventually I’ll be…a memory of something you could have had if you weren’t too self-obsessed to notice it.”
Once again, I was forced to take multiple breaks. And not the good (I gotta take care of something…) kinda breaks. Not the breaks one would expect with the subject matter. Breaks to stop myself from skimming. Breaks because my interest is not held.
The book is plagued by structural issues—sentence framework, adjective and adverb placement, and punctuation.
There’s not an abundance of variety in Ben’s toolbox. Every character he writes is either himself or a version of himself.
The two POV characters get cheap thrills from “seducing” men. It’s juvenile. Anyone with game was doing this way before they were, and anyone with maturity outgrew it. They’re not repressed, so they just end up sounding lecherous. They seem like they’re trying to give off player/playboy vibes, but they come off as old and sad men…chasing spent youth as they chase orgasms.
The irony is thick when Ben…I mean Nate…is taken aback that someone finds him hot but doesn’t want to screw on the first date. Quelle horreur.
“He’s still a teenage boy at heart. Life is a permanent pissing contest. With you, often, but with himself, always.”
Nate is an extremely selfish top. Doesn’t give head, and rarely rims. Adrian definitely deserves better, so it’s pleasing when he calls Nate out on his rubbish. Same for Tom, calling Dan out.
“Jesus, Nathan. What kind of world do you live in where everything guys do is just to get their rocks off?”
The few times Nate has authentic emotions and not just sensations, it makes me want to recoil from him. He’s clearly troubled, but again, there’s no substantial introspection in that vein.
“I had been wrong. It was we who were broken.”
It’s a relief when Dan finally does have some great self-reflection. He finally realizes how messed up and alone he is, and he wants to fix it.
If Nate weren’t so astonishingly self-absorbed, he would see Jonah for the rapey degenerate that he is.
The scene by the pool with Jonah and Dan is appalling. To later attempt to justify that as some sort of empowering move is repugnant.
Dan and Nate are hot together. And they actually talk...sometimes.
The ending is not fulfilling.
“…eventually I’ll be…a memory of something you could have had if you weren’t too self-obsessed to notice it.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews