However, while it had its moments, it just wasn’t nearly as brutal, emotive or gritty as I thought it would be. As Noah spends more of his time with them, getting drunk and high, neglecting his mental health and physical wellbeing, he finds himself alienating the people in his life. never truly addressing ideas can be a comment on the normality of mh and the normalising of inaccessible support. After a gig from his favourite band Smiling Politely turns sour, twenty-something Noah finds himself panicked on the streets of London.

Not just those of the main trio, but also those of Noah’s best friends, and even his boss were all in need of expansion. really felt like i experienced living in london through the book’s many descriptions of commuting to bars of pubs.With The Appendix I wanted cis people to know that transness wasn’t misery, and trans people to know that there was hope, but The Arena of the Unwell is just a story. A poor condition book can still make a good reading copy but is generally not collectible unless the item is very scarce. I really enjoy books that do co-dependent, messed up relationships well, and this is a great example, and being from Noah’s perspective meant you saw how much he started to ignore everyone else when he really needed them. An manchen Stellen echt SEHR detailliert (TW Selbstverletzung, musste echt einmal das Buch wegpacken…) super toxisches Geschehen im Buch aber ein passendes Ende gefunden.

How did you ground your work in the setting while also making it inviting to those unfamiliar with the terrain explored?LK: I’m glad it’s inviting to people who aren’t familiar with the setting, although I’m not sure that’s anything I’ve done deliberately.