Licit Cusp by Weebod

Licit Cusp by Weebod

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is my third book that I’ve read by this author. Not tremendously important but . . ..

This book stars Shona MacLeod, 18 year old from a small island off the coast of Scotland. The book opens with her starting her college education at a university in Edinburgh Scotland. Oh, and it’s 1986. Her father, a very angry dickish kind of asshole, forces her to stay at a specific house while in Edinburgh, one with a strict landlady type – and the other guests are like her, young students from far islands and the like. Being a dick, the father continues his long-distance control of his daughter by ‘giving her’ a tiny little bit of money each week (through the landlady person) for her lunches and stuff. Barely enough for that, though. A crappy way to spend college, so Shona begins to rebel almost immediately by getting a job – more so she can save up to buy a walkman than because she wants to rebel, but still.

By a bit of fate, Shona ended up in a bar one night – and ended up getting a job in this specific location. She doesn’t look it, but she is 18, which is legal drinking age in Scotland in 1986. She gets the job from Toni Martin, the person who manages the place (I forget now if Toni is 24 or 26).

Another ‘almost immediately’ occurs when Shona begins feeling odd things about Toni. Over a longish period of time the two grow close, Shona comes to realize what these feelings mean, and her relationship with her family morphs. Starting off with her decision to break away and become more independent (which is helped by the fact that the money for the university is actually hers – a grant check/thingie gets sent to her, she just turned it over to her father for this semester/year, but will keep it for next – that’s the plan at least).

This really is a book about family, and coming to understand oneself. Shona coming to understand herself, and her lesbianness. And her relationship with her father, mother, two sisters, and brother (more with her parents and one of her sisters, though the other siblings play their small part as well).

This really is a neat look at bits of Scotland I hadn’t been able to see before. An overall all-around great book. Naturally I’m now regretting waiting 2 or 3 days before writing a review. The book is still lodged in my mind – I recall the young woman going off to college, riding the ferry, feeling constrained in the dorm, getting that bar job, the changing nature of her relationship with Toni and her family, but . . . I do not really know what all to put in this review. Without being spoiler-y ((view spoiler)[like I could mention that one of her sisters ends up wandering over from the island to join Shona, for important reasons (view spoiler)[pregnancy (hide spoiler)] or mention . . . when Toni got beaten up . . or the stuff about how Toni’s drunk father once groped Shona . . . or how Toni's brother is in jail (though at some point would father a child with an 18 year old woman who would in turn die at the age of 22, leaving the youngster to be raised by the grandparents who, for whatever reason, do not appear to be in this book, though Fran – that offspring, and the grandfather appear in the book that follows this one - Defensive Mindset. But all of that is kind of spoiler-y (hide spoiler)]).

Good solid book. I’ll leave with one last thought: Toni Martin and, to a lesser extent Shona McLeod and Eddie, turn up in a later book (Defensive Mindset.)

Edinburgh:
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

Edinburgh University:
(view spoiler)[[image error] (hide spoiler)]

Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland
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Rating: 4.48

April 11 2017



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Book url: http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/w/weebod_licitcusp1.html