- I absolutely loved this new novel from Melbourne author Angela Meyer. She is a gifted writer. Her prose is fluent and her narrative absorbing. All the pieces in this book, even the other-worldly explorations, nicely come together in a very meaningful and emotionally satisfying way.
- Mila is a single, 40 year old, fitness trainer who decides to join a 'sugar mamas' online sex site. She wants, and will pay for, a lover. Her 10 year old relationship with her former partner has ended. She wanted a baby, he didn’t, and he suffered from depression.
- She meets up with Josh who turns out to be a kind, generous and thoughtful young man. They become close friends. Meyer offers us highly erotic descriptions of their sex, and intricate details on female sexuality. This is where her writing excels. It's strikingly good.
- After a while Josh leaves for a long planned trip to Europe. Unfortunately, however, he dies in Berlin, presumed drowned in the Spree river, having emailed a short suicide note to his family. His body has not been found.
- Josh's friend, Kyle, and Mila travel to Berlin to search for answers. It seems highly unlikely to them that Josh, comfortable in his own skin, would have committed suicide. They expect foul play. They explore all sorts of meet up sites like SugarMeetMe, Tinder, Grindr, and Oglr, hoping to connect with women and men who may know Josh and have suspicions about what actually happened.
- Before Josh left for Europe he and Mia had decided to join a drug trial by a private company owned by Lisa, a billionaire. They would be paid. The drug, Xanthoria, was developed from radiated lichen by Lisa's father, a former astronaut, and is deemed to elevate consciousness and mental capacity. So far, however, there's no evidence that it has worked. No-one has been 'activated', despite ancient and modern myths and traditions promising personal growth and enlightenment.
- The story develops in a very thriller-type and satisfying way. But the question lingers - would it have resonated more if Meyer had stayed in the real world and dived deeper into the sex trade, its intimacies, dynamics and resulting emotional quandaries?
- It probably doesn't matter. It's a supremely good, highly enjoyable, novel just as it is.
(A future Netflix series for sure!)
