Review: The Rising Gold

The Rising Gold by Ava Jae
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Me when this book was first announced:




Clearly, it ain't October unless I'm reading one of the books in this magnificent trilogy, because I read the first book in October 2016 and the second in October 2017. And now, what will Gabe gift us with for October 2019, if anything? For sure I'll be eagerly reading anything they write. As for The Rising Gold, though? Also for sure, it's a lock for the 2018 Pinecone Awards just like its immediate predecessor, Into the Black, and for much the same reason too.

So about a year ago, when I first got to read the second book, I wrote my review and tweeted it to Gabe, and as I remember, they said that they read my review before going into work and shed some serious happy tears over it. Well, Gabe, you got your payback with this third book, in which some of Eros' POV chapters gave me happy tears when I read them before work - hell, sometimes even while I was on my lunch break. More on that later, though.

I'm very glad I went and not only bought all three books in the trilogy at once to celebrate this momentous occasion, but also reread the first two books as well. Very nice it was to find a lot of details that I had forgotten, including a few minor characters who kinda faded into the background in Book 2 but come back bigtime in Book 3. I'm especially looking at Dima and Jarek, whose presence strongly impacts Kora's story arc as she struggles with her complicated feelings for her brother and his boyfriend. And also her feelings for Eros - I can't believe I used to ship them! Well, of course, now I know better.

Now I know exactly how right Deimos is for Eros.

Shae, those chapters are the ones that gave me all the happy tears. Well, besides how utterly adorable the dynamic between Eros and Mal still is. But this little bi boy (enough of a fan of this series that I'm probably the only person to use the word "lijara" in my Twitter profile)...well. There are a lot of iconic queer literary stars I can see myself in to some degree or another. Simon Spider (I still call him that, I can't help it!) Aaron Soto. Jesper Fahey. Jupiter Charity-Sanchez. Mia Corvere. Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio. Alec Lightwood. But none more so than Eros, that sweet nervous inexperienced bi boy who feels like literally nobody will ever want to love or sleep with him, and then along comes THE ONE. Ahhhh, Deimos, you blazing flirt. I can tell you that there's another universe, just like Griffin would've posited in History Is All You Left Me, where one of my best friends is my boyfriend (his sister already ships us. Lol), and Gabe, you've probably come closest to making that universe a reality.

That's not to say that this book's all fluff, of course. It wouldn't be one of Gabe's if it weren't a real hard-hitter with its themes of overcoming and dismantling oppressive systems. Nowhere is the road to a better world easy for Eros, Kora, Deimos, or any of their allies. Especially when the fight gets super personal for Kora, and Eros struggles with his increasingly fragile mental health - a struggle that becomes personal for Deimos as well as he grows to love Eros more and more. And of course, Eros has to deal with his, erm, contentious relationship with his mother. Of all the people in this series, I think she's the one I dislike the most.

But all these unflinching themes are beautifully balanced, of course, by all the positivity advanced by our heroes. As expected, this book is very queer-friendly, with even more visible lijarae than ever - including some trans rep, directly clashing with the Sepharon claim established back in Book 1 that the men are able to control their children's gender at conception (but of course, Kala has other plans.) And I very much welcome the sex-positivity, further helping to normalize enthusiastic consent and sex before marriage.

I mean, is there any doubt that this series is one of my all-time favorites? Voiding NO.

Gabe, to your killer debut trilogy, I now bid ave atque vale.

PS: Why the hell are there no text reviews on this book's GR page besides mine? Damn, y'all are sleeping on this trilogy. Well, luckily, I've lent the whole trilogy to a dear friend of mine, who'll hopefully become the next big fan. :D

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