Reviewed by: Taylor
TITLE: Filth
AUTHOR: M. King
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 297 pages
BLURB:
Does gender really matter? Kel and Toni are two damaged people, both trying to find answers. But, where Kel’s hopes for the future lie mainly with outreach programs and a new life with his lover, Toni’s looking for absolution in a bottle of Mexican hormone pills.
Kel loves Toni obsessively and—though he supports both of them on the money he gleans from turning tricks and indulging less-than-salubrious clients—he struggles with the reality of Toni’s burgeoning transition, and her motives for doing it.
While Kel grapples with his worries, and the attentions of regular client Michael, otherwise known as The Sherbet Pervert, Toni has different problems to face. Is there really a correct way to read women’s magazines? What about the manifold uses of maxi pads? And just what is this gender thing, anyway?
For all their attempts to build a life together, both Kel and Toni know their survival is precarious. What neither of them realize is just how easily their harsh, isolated little world can be turned upside down and, when chance events push them into unknown territory, both must confront some difficult truths.
REVIEW:
Oh this book. This book made me so happy because it was thought-provoking, simplistic but complex, with two people each struggling on their own and trying to figure out how they fit together.
What you have is Kel and Toni, both with difficult pasts and difficult presents. Working as prostitutes, recovering from drugs and the party lifestyle, regularly getting tested for STDs, buying medications off the street because the idea of figuring yourself out finally is stronger than waiting and seeing if it’s real and if it’s best for you. Wanting to figure yourself out so strongly that you are willing to leave much of your past behind to live in a rundown, tiny apartment holed up together praying each day will be better than the last.
“It’s a funny thing not knowing who you are. Whether it’s a passing crisis, or just nerves, or even a slowly changing point of view, it’s unsettling. It doesn’t feel safe.”
These two individuals are not easy. They aren’t easy to read; they aren’t easy on each other. They fight – at times verbally, emotionally, and in the past, even physically. They’ve slept with others to not just earn money to live, but to help each other with future dreams, even if it’s the option for a one way bus ticket to get away. This is a story about the forgotten and the people thrown away by society. It’s about those people wanting more, but having each other is often enough. It’s about unconditional love served to the reader in an unconventional manner. It’s kissing your loved one’s fingers despite not loving their gel nail polish. It’s about bringing home pancakes and packed cheap meat just to see your loved one smile. It’s about not running away as soon as shit gets hard or scary.
There isn’t a lot of talking, but the thinking is monumental. These aren’t characters that are going to discuss every detail with each other and have long chats by a fire. You are on a journey with them, they are alone in their heads panicking and fearing and remembering why they love each other, they are sitting comfortably sitting next to each other late at night, they are rolling away from each other after emotional sex trying to process everything, they are accessing each other’s body language and facial expressions. They are growing in both when they are speaking and just as much when they aren’t.
Ideas of gender and sex run throughout and even the pronouns switch continuously, which is something I loved. But it never serves anything in this book in black and white terms. This book is about the gray areas, it’s about the questions rather than absolute answers.
“Names are hard, though. He doesn’t know where to start, who he wants to be. What he sees in his head, when it’ll all be over, that person who’s smart and brave and clean and free…she doesn’t have a name. Toni’s not even sure he connects with her all the time, that she’s really a part of him, and that gets him so mad.”
I think what I loved most about Filth is that the author never tries to make Toni and Kel broken boys who the reader should pity. She gave them strength and courage and a recognition of their own faults, but a desire to make the best of what they have and hope and work towards a change. If they stay together or eventually go their own ways, I’d be fine with either option. I just want them to be OK, I want better for them, but I’m happy they are figuring things out together.
Highly recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I have this book but haven’t read it yet. Your review is wonderful but it sounds like the book will need a sequel to have resolution and may end with a cliffhanger – trying to decide if I should read it now or wait for the next book.