Being a fan of Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures, I came across this book by chance. The novel was described as being influenced by the Parker-Hulme murder case, which Jackson’s film takes as its source material so I thought I’d give it a try.
I went into this as a gay reader (whether than makes any difference I don’t know) with somewhat low expectations. Having read other recent works advertised as LGBT fiction, I was expecting it to be a novel aimed more towards the Gen Z demographic, particularly girls that overly romanticise male relationships.
But honestly, I was seriously impressed with Micah Nemerever’s debut novel. This story had me gripped from the beginning – the toxicity of Paul and Julian’s relationship, the complicated nature of obsession. It was so wonderfully written too and I couldn’t put it down.
I have read some previous threads here about how others interpreted the ending of the novel, but one thing that came to mind after I had finished was an earlier moment in the story when Paul meets the Frommes and they tell him that Julian had thrown away many other boys in the past. Paul would be no different.
So upon finishing, it made me wonder whether anyone else thought that Julian, since having his fun and pushing their relationship to such a catastrophic conclusion, had exhausted himself and realised it was now time to move on to someone else to manipulate?
In this regard, I found the final photo and the chess move as being evocative of his ability to shape and manipulate. Paul was always going to be played, he lost by entering into such a game in the first place. The photo merely a reminder of how easy it was to deceive him into doing such a heinous act.
Other readers seem to have seen the ending somewhat bittersweet, the photo a token of their love and time together, wishing that they could have received a happy ending. For me, I found Julian to a true villain from start to finish and despite Paul’s actions, I couldn’t help to feel sympathy for a unwell boy who was too easy to be shaped and swayed by another.
by wenwen1990