X by Davey Davis

Lee, an amateur sadist, is on a mission to track down a mysterious and beautiful dominatrix named X. As Lee searches far and wide in the present, the novel jumps back and forth to the recent past and their childhood, revealing important moments that have shaped the person Lee has become – someone cocky and braggadocious on the surface but harbouring deeper secrets and trauma. 

Davey Davis’ novel is part noir, part erotic thriller and completely captivating. This dark, sensuous page-turner brings to life queer subcultures against the backdrop of systemic oppression and a rise in fascism very much mirroring our current geopolitical climate. Anyone seen as deviant, a criminal or vagrant is under threat of exportation, essentially sent to foreign countries never to return to the United States. This puts most of the characters of X at continuous risk, and yet they continue to actively engage in their deviant practices.

For as dark and harrowing as certain passages are, Davis also employs loads of humour and acerbic wit throughout the novel, while giving space to queer communities so often kept in the shadows. X is a bold examination of the current political mood in much of the Global West while celebrating the dark and depraved. The novel leaves the reader questioning when pain is pleasure and when pain is a tool of the oppressor.

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Cipher Press, 27 Oct