Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Midnight Swim
AUTHOR: Francis Gideon
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 24 pages
BLURB:
Devon Landry works nights at a tech company and goes to the gym during the day. During one of his workouts, Devon spots a mysterious man swimming in the pool alone. Later in the change room, the man introduces himself as Wolf, a friend of the gym’s owner. When Wolf invites Devon for a midnight swim after hours, Devon must call in sick for work and completely change his schedule, or risk missing out on a mysterious offer with other implications beyond learning how to swim.
Before their date, Devon pieces together facts about Wolf, who is really Sebastian Thibodaux, a former Olympic hopeful who dropped out when he got cancer. Now cancer-free, he swims alone in the gym’s pool as if to relive his old days. From the old press photos Devin finds of Wolf with young male escorts, he’s relieved to find he is precisely Wolf’s type.
At midnight, both men meet and test the boundaries of their routines, bodies, and perceptions. As Devon relinquishes his control, his new adventure with Wolf grows more exciting than he ever could imagine.
REVIEW:
When Devon Landry sees the swimmer thru the glass at his gym, he has to admit it is not just the StairMaster getting his blood pressure up. The older man, with his lean body and greying hair just does something for Devon. Maybe is it the way he’d liked to dry the man off with his tongue. Devon never expected to get an offer for a late night swim from the man, but he is hardly going to turn Wolf down. Even if he doesn’t know how to swim.
This story read as mostly flat. It felt like a recitation of events and not a story of two people meeting. With the exception of a little poolside hanky-panky, I didn’t feel very much about anyone or anything. Yes, ok, the sex by the pool was a little hot at times, but mostly it was just boring. I think this had to do with the fact that it was written in a very basic and repetitive manner. Almost all the sentences were constructed the same “he did this” “he said that” “he thought this” “he picked up that” way. After a page of it I was falling asleep. This book was only a little over twenty pages long, yet it felt like it took forever to read.
It would have helped if this book spent less time on superfluous side journeys, and instead just focused on the two guys. I’m not sure why we need to use two of the twenty pages to talk about the owners (or ex-owner) of the gym. They do not seem to be in any way connect to the main purpose of the story–which basically seems to be: get Devon laid by hot swimmer dude. Which is a fine story. I wouldn’t mind reading about Devon getting laid by a hot, older, swimmer dude. But there was so much other stuff clogging the story, that by the time it came around to naked-swim-time, I just wanted the story to be over.
The editing of the story wasn’t exactly helping out either. Sometimes the sentences made no sense, or there were word missing that really needed to be there for it to be coherent. And there were also some inconsistencies in the story that need further explanation (if Devon has never swam before why does he a) have a pair of old swim trunks and b) know that swimming can’t be measured or quantified in terms of exercise?).
I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of a story this short, but what I got was a bit of a letdown. The characters were way too flat to be interesting, and the plot just seemed to meander all over the place. Had this been tightened up, and edited, I think I could have enjoyed the story of Devon Gets Fucked By Wolf Beside the Pool. But that wasn’t the story I was given. Unfortunately.
RATING: 
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