Summary
Summary
* A Finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction * One of Autostraddle's Best Queer Books of 2019 *
A deliciously disarming debut novel about a twenty-something Londoner who discovers that she may have been looking for love--and pleasure--in all the wrong places (i.e., from men).
Julia has had enough. Enough of the sex noises her roommate makes. Enough of her dead-end government job. Enough of the one-night stand who accused her of breaking his penis. The only thing she hasn't had enough of is orgasms; she hasn't had proper sex in three years.
So when Julia gets invited to a warehouse party in a part of town where trendy people who have lots of sex go on a Friday night, she readily accepts. And that night she meets someone: a figurative artist who also happens to be a woman.
Julia's sexual awakening begins; her new lesbian life is exhilarating. She finds her tribe at queer swing-dancing classes, and guided by her new lover Sam, she soon discovers London's gay bars and BDSM clubs--and the complexities of polyamory. Soon it becomes clear that Sam needs to call the shots, and Julia's newfound liberation comes to bear a suspicious resemblance to entrapment . . .
In at the Deep End is an unforgettable and audacious odyssey through the pitfalls and seductions we encounter on the treacherous path to love and self.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Davies's not-quite-romantic debut showcases a good sense of comedic pacing, but undermines itself with a judgmental, distancing attitude and an unwillingness to lean into either a happy ending or a zanily catastrophic one. Three years into a sexual dry spell, civil servant Julia accepts an invitation to accompany the couple she lives with to a party. There, she has one last terrible hookup with a man, and then, after a single romantic encounter with a woman, dives into a lesbian identity. She soon meets Sam, a butch painter whose connection to the underground scene appeals to Julia, but their relationship is stressed by Julia's discomfort with Sam's penchant for BDSM, sex clubs, and nonmonogamy, particularly her ongoing involvement with her married French girlfriend, Virginie. Secondary characters, such as Julia's work buddies, her thoughtless "semi-amateur" therapist, and her parents, are mostly substanceless. Unquestioned, introspection-free positivity around Julia's instant lesbianism is coupled with strong negativity about well-negotiated polyamory, and the story arc ties nonmonogamy tightly to Sam's abusive behavior and the collapse of Sam and Julia's relationship. This story may arouse and amuse straight and monogamous readers looking for a window onto other lives, but queer and polyamorous readers are likely to be deeply unimpressed. Agent: Sally Wofford-Girand, Union Literary. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
A young woman goes in search of a more exciting sex life in this fresh and funny lesbian coming-of-age adventure In this energetically explicit new take on the coming-of-age lesbian novel, Julia is a 26-year-old civil servant who wants a more exciting sex life. One day, she meets a charismatic butch woman called Sam who takes her on a Sapphic sexual odyssey that includes a French swingers' party, a fetish club in London, an erotic kidnap scene and some state of the art strap-ons. You can feel the influences here - Fleabag and Girls - but weirdly enough the strongest voice is Bridget Jones. This is a clever book and one that will doubtless be commercially successful because Davies is careful to hold her readers by the hand as she leads them through various exotic terrains. There's always a joke to be cracked and the safe haven of Julia's nice flatmates to return to, or another visit to her middle-class parents in Oxford, who have French windows and eat champagne-and-prosciutto-flavoured crisps. Sometimes I wished Julia would stop being so witty and let herself cast off into the world of raw desire. There's a lot of detail about the mechanics of certain activities, but if you're looking for some lesbian SM fiction that both shocks and turns you on, you should read Pat (now Patrick) Califia's 1988 classic story collection Macho Sluts , set amid the early San Francisco leather dyke scene. Thirty years on, Julia has the luxury of finding the SM world exciting but ultimately a joke, and kink-loving Sam turns out to be slightly unhinged. But the issues Julia encounters are all on-point for the modern age, from the polyamory nightmare ("I was beginning to think there was such a thing as too much honesty") to the timeless courtship technique ("If you fancy someone in a lesbian bar, you have to stare at her like you want her dead"). It's also great that in a world where there's an increasing expectation for masculine lesbians to think about becoming trans men, Davies doesn't get hung up on politics, but instead writes skilfully and indeed lovingly about the beauty and allure of the female butch.
Kirkus Review
In Davies' exceedingly charming debut, a romantically frustrated 20-something Londoner realizes maybe the problem isn't hermaybe the problem is men.It's been three years since Julia has had sex herself, although she is frequently privy to sexadjacent to sex, subjected to sexliving with her best friend, Alice, and Alice's boyfriend in a flat with unfortunately thin walls. But her own sex life has been, to date, lackluster. "I'd always preferred the idea of sex to sex itself," she muses. "The thing is, sex had never been particularly high on my list of priorities." Dance had been her priority, but then she was injured, and so, instead of the ballet career she'd dreamed of, she has an uninspiring government job, a very opinionated therapist, and a total lack of romantic intrigue. Until, at a cool warehouse party, she meets Jane. Sex is different with Jane; everything is different with Jane. Julia is overcome with ecstatic relief: She's a lesbian. "I felt like I belonged, at last, in the world of the sexually fulfilled," she declares. "Now I had a sense of purpose. I was going to find someone to be a lesbian with." And quickly, she doesnot one of the women from her new queer swing-dance group (she immediately joins a queer swing-dance group), but Sam, an artist she meets at a club. But as their relationship intensifies, Sam's one-sided demands start to feel increasingly stiflingleaving Julia to define the kind of relationship she wants for herself. Davies recounts the progression of Julia and Sam's relationship in such detail, and with such focus, that it's occasionally exhausting, like listening to a friend obsess over the plodding minutiae of a fundamentally doomed relationship for years. (And who among us has not?) But Davies' writing is so breezy and effortlessand her characters so delightfulthat to spend time in her world is a pleasure. Sweet but never saccharine; a literary rom-com about the importance of knowing yourself. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After a long dry spell, some terribly ""unsexy sex"" with a man, and a sparks-flying encounter with a woman, Londoner Julia realizes that perhaps, after all, she's a lesbian. Suddenly everything makes sense, and her coming out is as joyful and untraumatic as a self-rupture can be. It's exhilarating to finally feel that she has a uniqueness to explore and wear proudly. She soon does both with Sam, a super-hot artist who specializes in nude portraits of women from a queer female gaze. Self-deprecating puppy dog Julia happily succumbs to assertive Sam's considerable charms in the bedroom and also, a little less happily, to her controlling behaviors outside of it. Can her intense sexual awakening and all-consuming love for Sam balance out her blinding jealousy over polyamorous Sam's longtime French (of course) girlfriend? Is she just being old fashioned? Surrounded by a crew of first-rate secondary characters, companionable Julia is a twentysomething heroine for today. Davies' pitch-perfect adult debut, a spiced-up companion to Camille Perri's When Katie Met Cassidy (2018), is equal parts sexy and introspective.--Annie Bostrom Copyright 2019 Booklist
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Davies's first novel is by turns funny and darkly serious as one young woman finds her sexual footing in a new world. Twentysomething Julia lives and works in London and struggles to figure out her dating life. She hasn't had sex in three years but has to listen, almost nightly, to her roommate and her boyfriend. Julia's in a rut and determined to change that. Her social explorations lead to a hookup with a woman and an epiphany. Perhaps all those encounters in her past weren't mediocre just because she hadn't met the right guy; perhaps she doesn't want a guy at all. Julia throws herself into her newfound life as a queer woman. But what starts as an exciting exploration of her own sexuality turns darker as she dives into the deep end with her first lesbian relationship. While Julia doesn't always make the right choices, readers will certainly understand them. VERDICT Touted as a "Bridget Jones for 2019," this might be more aptly compared to the television show Girls with its combination of humor and a frank exploration of contemporary sexuality. [See Prepub Alert, 12/17/18.]--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI