The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Look Up, Handsome
By Jack Strange
Published by One More Chapter, 2024
Four stars

The most remarkable thing about this winsome romance is that Hay-on-Wye, Wales, in which the story is set, is a real place. Known as the city of books, Hay felt like a fantasy.

The actual fantasy is the story of Quinn Oxford, a twenty-something and native of Hay-on-Wye, who runs the only LGBTQ+ bookstore in the town. The catalyst is Noah Sage, who, also in his late twenties, has already achieved fame and fortune through his series of (presumably gay) romance novels. Interestingly, Noah Sage also grew up in Hay, and yet somehow Quinn has never met him. As you can imagine, there’s a reason for that, which forms a crucial part of the narrative.

Quinn is a highly appealing character. His greatest flaw (weakness? Achilles heel?) is the fact that in his desire to cause no trouble to anybody ever, he has in fact allowed his own life to become subject to the whims of everyone. He loves his bookstore, Kings & Queens; he loves the good it does in the community, providing a safe space for everyone in the LGBTQ+ rainbow; he loves his little apartment upstairs right near by. Of course, he loves Hay itself, and everything the town is.

This is also a Christmas story. To an American it’s a Hallmark Movie sort of tale, set in a wintry landscape. The lightning bolt of his first sighting of Noah Sage is immediately complicated by the emergence of a threat to Quinn’s livelihood and happiness. It takes Quinn’s best friend, Ivy, to help him both see the light and manage his complicated psychology.

At first, Quinn assumes he is the lowly bookseller and Noah is the celebrity author; but as the story unfolds, he realizes that Hay, for all his gentle charm, has not left all its native sons go undamaged. Noah has his secrets (not the least of which is his mother), and Noah’s trauma becomes an important second plotline to be unraveled on the road to happiness.

“Look Up, Handsome,” is utterly charming, and also oddly awkward. It follows all the rules of gay romance, but also tosses in fascinating little complications that seem enormous on the tiny stage that the town of Hay provides.

I suppose it all comes down to a paraphrase of my favorite opening line from Tolstoy: all happy families are alike. Unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way. This truth is one of the richest veins of emotion in Jack Strange’s lovely book.