#Idlewild Books

[libraryleopard]

earlier today i was thinking about how interesting it is that i saw the tv glow is a piece of media about fandom but it's entirely grounded in the real world instead of the internet (like there's no mention of either character visiting forums for the pink opaque or anything which probably would have existed in-universe even if it's the 90s) and also how i bet there was some really killer lesbian fanfiction about tara and isabel and then i was like WAIT i can think of a piece of media with somewhat similar vibes that is indeed All About the internet

[househrt]

am I a freak if I say these James Frankie Thomas tweets are House-coded

[kittybricks]

I saw the tv glow for men who are on they computers

[bones-clouds]

books i read in 2024:

“idlewild”

james frankie thomas

“if i couldn’t manifest homosexuality in myself, i would instead locate it everywhere else. if nell and i couldn’t be gay together, we could—we would, we did—create for ourselves a separate world in which gayness was ambient and immanent and unrelated to us.”

[evenstarfalls]

Idlewild (2023), James Frankie Thomas

[destinationtoast]

I'm currently devouring Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas. It's in part a novel about being best friends who are a single entity in high school, constantly either together physically or conversing from afar. Obsessive friends who search all text for sexual subtext and who write fic together. I recognize my high school best friend and myself in so much of this novel.

These characters are about 7 years younger than we were, though. They have the internet. They have Livejournal, and AIM. One of them haunts Willow/Tara forums, and the other reads Holmes/Watson slash. They rp and write fic together.

Oh, to have been a teen at that time.

(Except that I'm SO glad that much of my bestie's and my content -- the self-insert bandom fic, the long notes speculating graphically about the private lives of our teachers and classmates, the wacky AU fic about people we knew, the use of phrases like "throbbing manhood" or "steel-hard rod sheathed in velvety skin" -- was never posted online.)

Anyway, even though I'm nowhere close to finished, I feel confident that this book will probably be of interest to many people in fandom, especially folks old enough to remember 9/11 (the high school part of this book takes place in 2001-2002 NYC), folks who were queer but nervous/confused about it in high school, folks who have long been obsessed with two dudes doing it, and anyone who was ever hive-mind close with a friend.

[transbookoftheday]

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

James Frankie Thomas’s Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense teenage friendship, in a queer, trans, and early-Internet twist on the Manhattan prep school novel.

Idlewild is a tiny, artsy Quaker high school in lower Manhattan. Students call their teachers by their first names, there are no grades, and every day begins with 20 minutes of contemplative silence in the Meetinghouse. It is during one of those meetings that an airplane hits the Twin Towers.

For two Idlewild outcasts, 9/11 serves as the first day of an intense, 18-month friendship. Fay is prickly, aloof, and obsessed with gay men; Nell is shy, sensitive, and obsessed with Fay. The two of them bond fiercely and spend all their waking hours giddily parsing their environment for homoerotic subtext. Then, during rehearsals for the fall play, they notice two sexually ambiguous boys who are potential candidates for their exclusive Invert Society. The pairs become mirrors of one another and drive each other to make choices that they’ll regret for the rest of their lives.

Looking back on these events as adults, the estranged Fay and Nell trace that fateful school year, recalling backstage theater department intrigue, antiwar demonstrations, smutty fanfic written over AIM, a shared dial-up connection—and the spectacular cascade of mistakes, miscommunications, and betrayals that would ultimately tear the two of them apart.

[coldduckweaselkid]

christopher korkian i want to save you

[bajoop-sheeb]

4, 11, 16? 👀

hey mar!

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year? YES. Petra Erika Nordlund (Tiger, Tiger), James Frankie Thomas (Idlewild), Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (Don't Go Without Me), Rich Larson ("Quandary Aminu vs The Butterfly Man").

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? Hmm three-way tie between City of Bones by Martha Wells (the first edition >>> revised version; the latter filed down the mc's teeth to make him more palatable. Bitchy Khat they could never make me hate you...), Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (never tried it until this summer because I don't really read YA anymore BUT EVERYONE'S RIGHT IT'S SO GOOD), and Tiger, Tiger (which I actually came across in high school but bounced off of for some inexplicable reason).

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year? A Song of Ice and Fire lmao. I tried to read the whole thing this year. I generally don't love the way George R.R. Martin writes women but A Game of Thrones is a strong start to the series (especially the Daenerys chapters). But after the first entry, I'd argue there are STEEPLY diminishing returns, even if there are some great moments sprinkled throughout the following books.

[eusebbius]

lesbian reading wrap up 2024 part 3

october cont.

greta & valdin by rebecca k reilly

this book is full of so much love & warmth and i loved reading it so much. it's so funny and heartwarming and i can't wait to re-read it. when i read this my brother was studying abroad at the university of auckland, which is where this book is set, and this book is about the sibling relationship between greta & valdin, so it made me think of him and was very good timing for me to read it then. i really really loved this. i also loved the part early on in the book where greta forgets that she's gay and goes on a date with a man. so true queen. everyone should read this book !!!! also all the side characters felt very well drawn and distinctive to me. and the authors film podcast is very entertaining.

in the dream house by carmen maria machado

ok obviously this book is extremely popular and influential. i thought it was as good as everyone says it is but to be honest i don't have like an original take to contribute about this book. but i read it in one sitting it was extremely gripping. and also i thought the form of different horror tropes suited the content extremely well.

rainbow black by maggie thrash

this book is sooooo romantic to me actually. gwen and jo are in love even though theyre fighting <3 and this book was extremely extremely entertaining. i repeatedly found myself very surprised by the direction the book took. i also loved the first person narration. yeah i had a lot of fun reading this.

idlewild by james frankie thomas

ok i have more complicated feelings about this book. first of all in some ways this book more closely captures my high school experience than anything i've ever read. it certainly captures my intiail coming out experience more closely than anything else will- when i read that part of the book i was like damn this is me word for word pretty much. but i feel like nell deserved better </3 at the end of the book we see fay on the brink of a realization that will bring her meaningful change and growth. we see nell still struggling to be in a relationship or like be at peace with herself. i know that the author clearly relates more to fay's experience than nell's but i wish the narrative had more empathy for nell.

[libraryleopard]

the thing about idlewild. is that there is a LOT of really interesting stuff to discuss about to discuss in regards to this book (codependency, theater, queer loneliness, unrealized trans identity, racism, fetishization and idealization and exploration) but also my most visceral memory of reading this book is probably going to be when i realized that that excerpts of the rpf the two protagonists wrote was going to be actually INCLUDED in the book and had to physically put my copy down and walk around the house with my head in my hands out of sheer secondhand embarrassment. utterly masterful moment of cringe.

[mblematic]

just dropped everything on my tbr to read Idlewild and Daria Morgendorffer is brought up on page 14, making it, already, a perfect book

Fay's chapters are in ao3 formatting!!! i'm screaming

[bohemian-rhapsody-in-blue]

John William Polidori: What was the last book you finished?

Thanks for the ask, and sorry for the slight delay in answering!

John William Polidori: What was the last book you finished?

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey. I’m currently reading its sequel, Not Like the Movies.

I kinda wish I had a more intellectual-sounding answer to that question, but I read this one because I wanted a cheerful, chill romcom (partially because I’ve also just started A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, so I need to be reading something lighthearted, too, to counteract it…). In fact, I deliberately chose one of the most funny- and lighthearted-looking books from my TBR. It was pretty decent!

[Classic Author Asks]

[smokefalls]

Title: Idlewild Author: James Frankie Thomas Publication Year: 2023 Publisher: The Overlook Press Genre: fiction, queer lit

I thought Thomas did a phenomenal job capturing the messiness that comes with being in high school, especially while queer. To be more specific, if you happen to be from the US (bonus points if it was the Northeast) and attended middle/high school in the early to mid 2000s (i.e., post-9/11), Idlewild is going to be a trip down memory lane.

To return to the point about growing up queer, the exploration of queerness was really well done. Thomas was thoughtful in exploring the complicated mess of it all, especially the sense of feeling as though you're in the wrong space and body. It gets more complicated when you consider the time this book was set in, too.

That being said, I cannot emphasize enough that this book is probably going to hit harder for queer white people who spent their adolescence during this period, as the book very much centered white voices. This isn't me throwing rotten tomatoes at Thomas or anything, but the whiteness of this book was something that frequently came to mind as I read. Not in a good or bad way; just that it was what it was, and it was very clear to me that Thomas was writing with personal experience in mind to a certain extent.

Overall, though, Idlewild was packed with emotions. It was tough being queer back then. It's still fucking tough being queer now. I'm grateful that Thomas approached these difficulties the way he did: funnily and heartbreakingly.

Content Warning: racism, fetishization of queer people, elements of a toxic friendship

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Halloween (Idlewild by Nick Sagan)…

Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[miiyumei]

just finished one of those books where the only thing i can do now is sit and stare at a wall as i try to process what i just read.