Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Tops Down Bottoms Up
AUTHOR: Jay Northcote
NARRATOR: Hamish Long
PUBLISHER: Jaybird Press
LENGTH: 2 hours and 17 minutes
RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2021
BLURB:
Will Rowan’s festival fling with sexy dancer Seth lead to something more permanent?
Rowan is stuck at a folk festival helping out a mate, and it really isn’t his scene. The yoga and singing workshops are bad enough, but morris dancing is the final straw. Bearded men with beer guts prancing around wearing bells – who wants to watch that?
All Rowan’s preconceptions are shattered when he meets Seth – a morris dancer, and the stuff Rowan’s fantasies are made of. Seth persuades Rowan to come to a dancing workshop, and Rowan’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to know Seth better. The attraction is mutual, and a lesson filled with innuendo and flirting leads to an incredible night together.
When Rowan arrives home, he’s gutted to find that Seth has given him the wrong phone number. Assuming Seth did it on purpose, Rowan resolves to forget about him. But fate – and friends – conspire to get them back together. Will they manage to stay in step this time around?
REVIEW:
In this audiobook of Jay Northcote’s novella Tops Down Bottoms Up, narrator Hamish Long helps transform a quirky, unfamiliar premise into an accessible, enjoyable story.
Rowan agrees to help his roommate work his booth at a folk festival. Rowan’s not thrilled about it, but he at least tolerates the noisy festivities and merrymaking. Frivolous frippery abounds. However, the Morris dancing is the greatest offender in Rowan’s view and he’s not shy about scoffing it.
Record scratch. What’s this now? Morris dancing? I can tell you that as an American, I have never heard of Morris dancing. So off to YouTube I go to get a sense of what it’s about.
Mr. Northcote’s contextual choice (Morris dancing) creates his biggest challenge in Tops Down Bottoms Up. A reader can appreciate and emotionally engage with experiences described in a book even without first-hand knowledge of them. Good writing closes that gap for the reader. For example, even if you’ve never played football, you can relate to and fully engage with a football romance. If you know what football is, you can appreciate and emotionally connect with scenes taking place on, around or in connection with football through the vivid description provided in the story. However, a complete lack of knowledge about the very thing being described poses a greater hurdle to reader engagement.
Rowan actively ridicules Morris dancers. However, that all goes out the window once he lays eyes on one of those dancers, Seth. Particularly because Seth catches Rowan during his mockery. Embarrassed at being caught out, Rowan’s resistance folds in the face of a sexy man expressing interest and requiring Rowan’s contriteness to move forward.
Rowan and Seth engage in an explosive sexual encounter that leaves an indelible impression on both men. Much of the sexual energy, subtle seduction and the ratcheting unresolved sexual tension derive from the nature of Morris dancing itself. Close contact, sensual maneuvers, fixed gazes … these create the connection that hurtles Rowan and Seth into this one-night-only hookup. If you don’t understand what Morris dancing is, though, it’s difficult to comprehend or feel the emotional connection between the men. Even the descriptors provided by the author don’t completely bridge that gap.
The story continues in more familiar territory. The men mutually decide to make this one-time-only arrangement into something more. But a fairly contrived phone number snafu foils that and introduces a detour in Rowan and Seth’s route to happiness together. Outside interference and some serendipity work to get these two back on track.
This fanciful romp isn’t easy to relate to in my view because in the first part, the context is unfamiliar, and in the latter part, the events feel contrived. Like Mr. Northcote’s other stories, it’s a light, easy read with a feel-good takeaway. I do think that Tops Down Bottoms Up either needed a more relatable premise or more time to develop the premise that was chosen. The story moved too quickly for the reader to get on board with the storyline in a way that would engender engagement.
Hamish Long solves much of this problem, although not all of it. Mr. Long’s excellent narration remains bound by the confines of the material he has to work with. His narrative style and vocalization are unique and readily identifiable which I think helps in establishing familiarity in a foreign context. He gives life to the characters, demonstrating his prodigious skill in characterization, developing the many aspects of Rowan and Seth. Mr. Long is Mr. Northcote’s narrator of choice and the connection and inherent understanding between author and narrator augment the text. Mr. Long’s narration is rich and textured and captures the nuances of Mr. Northcote’s storytelling. Most importantly, his narration is accessible and friendly, getting the reader comfortable with an unfamiliar context and making it easy to listen to the characters and events that transpire.
Overall, Tops Down Bottoms Up gets a boost from Mr. Long’s narration. He makes the story accessible, more complete, and relatable. Without the audio, I suspect I would have struggled more with the context. I don’t think I was ever able to fully engage, but the audio bridges the gap enough that the reader can leap the remainder, landing in a place where the sweet romance can be enjoyed and appreciated even if not fully, emotionally understood.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: