The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

TJ Klune's final release for the year really is something else; a fantastic story quite unlike anything else he's ever done. Here's the blurb:

In the small mountain town of Amorea, it’s stretching toward autumn of 1954. The memories of a world at war are fading in the face of a prosperous future. Doors are left unlocked at night, and neighbors are always there to give each other a helping hand.

The people here know certain things as fact:

Amorea is the best little town there is.

The only good Commie is a dead Commie.

The Women’s Club of Amorea runs the town with an immaculately gloved fist.

And bookstore owner Mike Frazier loves that boy down at the diner, Sean Mellgard. Why they haven’t gotten their acts together is anybody’s guess. It may be the world’s longest courtship, but no one can deny the way they look at each other.

Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.

But something’s wrong with Mike. He hears voices in his house late at night. There are shadows crawling along the walls, and great clouds of birds overhead that only he can see.

Something’s happening in Amorea. And Mike will do whatever he can to keep the man he loves.

It's difficult to know what to say about this book without giving away any key plot points. Because this is one of those stories that is best read without having any idea what is going to happen---or indeed, any specifics as to what the plot is about, precisely. So to avoid spoilers, please don't read any detailed discussions about the book before diving in!

I suppose all I can really say is that this is a trope that I really enjoy, whether it be in books or on the screen. That trope being: the protagonist slowly begins to realise that the world around him isn't quite as it seems. Something isn't quite right, and the reader makes the same journey as the characters in the story, in trying to figure out just what's wrong, and what's going on.

"Murmuration" plays out very much like an extended version of the classic "Twilight Zone" series; it's simply marvelous. To that I'd add just a dash of the film "Pleasantville," as well as the slightest hint of the television series "Wayward Pines." And to top it off, plug in a few elements from the 1980s "Twilight Zone" revival, specifically the episodes "Shatterday" and "Dreams for Sale."

And---maybe I've already said too much. Please, read the book; it's a splendid piece of work.

Mumuration
By T.J. Klune
Dreamspinner Press, 2016
Cover by Reese Dante
ISBN: 9781634774550
Five stars

You know right away that something’s off in the town of Amorea. Because it’s 1954, and everybody in town wants Mike Frazier to get together with Sean Mellgard. It’s like Mayberry, but with gay boys. How can that be?

The “Twilight Zone” theme kept playing, very softly, in the back of my mind as I immersed myself in this beautifully crafted novel. I marveled at the fact that, once again, T.J. Klune has given his readers a book that is unexpected and entirely different from what has gone before. This is not the giddy gay humor of “The Lightning-Struck Heart” or the grim dystopia of the “Immemorial Year” books. “Murmuration” is a slow, gentle build of anxiety, focusing on the daily life in a small town and the increasingly agitated mind of Mike Frazier. Mike is sweet on Sean, and he’s taking it slowly, looking forward to every day when he sees Sean at the diner. But Mike seems to be having hallucinations, like weird flashbacks, and he’s starting to worry that there’s something wrong with him.

There is almost no trace of the raw, slightly hysterical voice of Klune’s “Bear, Otter and the Kid” books that launched him into the world of gay lit. Klune’s writing is polished and controlled, giving his readers a brilliant sun-filled vision and then gradually painting in shadows until the entire picture has been transformed into one of subtly veiled menace. There is repetition of phrases and words– a sort of signature style in Klune’s writing. Here, that repetition becomes the verbal incarnation of murmuration – the title, which refers to the books title, an astounding natural phenomenon of massive flocks of starlings moving in synchrony.

All I demand of my gay authors is that they put gay characters at the center of their books. It is part of my emotional need as a reader to feel that I’m visible in a publishing world that still prefers LGBT people to stay out of the way. T.J. Klune does this, and yet seems to allow no other limitations on his imagination. He writes for himself, to release the stories that whirl in his mind (there’s that murmuration image again), although I suspect he thinks he’s writing for his fans. I, for one, think he’s a remarkable writer, and that his fans should be willing to follow his fertile mind wherever it goes. He’s still very young, and I can’t begin to guess where he’ll take us next.

I agree! Don't read spoilers...it's the surprise that matters. See my review below.