Blog Tour and Guest Post: The Black Leopard's Kiss & The Writer Remembers by Laury A. Egan

 

Book Details:

Book Title: The Black Leopard's Kiss & The Writer Remembers by Laury A. Egan
Category:  Adult Fiction (18+), 306 pages
Genre:  Literary, with magical realism
Publisher:  Spectrum Books
Release Date: Dec 16, 2023
Content Rating:  PG + M.  Language is moderate; scenes of attempted incest and lesbian encounter.  

“A fast slide and a wild ride, dizzying and amazing!”
—Beverly Harris, author of “The Two-Dollar Fortune”

"Characters “peel off layer after layer of age and the façades accrued in a lifetime until emotional truths are revealed—a Russian doll effect. Novellas that felt like falling into a rabbit hole, where the rules of my world no longer applied and were being changed as I went along….with the characters turning into their own creators. A work infused with the possibility of disaster and violence, a sense of foreboding permeates the pages.”—Dr. Helga Schier, former executive editor, Random House

“A winning combination of genius. Complimenting each other beautifully, using elegant and poetic prose, these clever novellas explore the life of Sidonie Ross in an autobiographical style with a twist. Intriguing throughout, the possibilities about what is transpiring are only as limited as your imagination allows. Sidonie's story is emotionally complex, with mystery and fantasy elements that elevated it into a wonderful exploration of the mind and memory.”—Carol Archer Hutchinson, LESBIreviewed

“…so much to admire in [these] brilliantly interlinked novellas: their elegance and wit, the sophistication of the narrative style, the assured and prolonged focus on scene, with all its pure and revealing gestures and withholdings, and the weaving in of larger thematic questions about the interpenetration of literature and life, questions which are themselves mirrored beautifully by the fluidity of gender and sexuality, youth and age.”--M. Allen Cunningham, author of "Perpetua’s Kin"

Book Description:

Featuring magical realism and "Orlando"-esque touches, the two linked novellas plunge the reader into the slippery world of an aging writer as she delves into her half-remembered childhood and re-experiences volatile relationships. The swirling structure, with its interwoven narratives and warping time periods, deals with the treacherous nature of memory and how an author, Sidonie Ross, returns to the past in order to illuminate and understand it; how unhealed wounds from childhood re-surface in adult consciousness like emotional thorns, especially those relating to shame, guilt, disappointment, betrayal, and rejection. 

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Meet the Author:

Laury A. Egan is the author of twelve novels: "The Psychologist’s Shadow;" "The Firefly;" "Once, Upon an Island;" "Wave in D Minor;" "Turnabout;" "Doublecrossed;" "The Swimmer;" "The Ungodly Hour;" "A Bittersweet Tale;" "Fabulous! An Opera Buffa;" "The Outcast Oracle;" and "Jenny Kidd;" and a collection, "Fog and Other Stories." Four limited-edition poetry volumes have been published: "Snow, Shadows, a Stranger;" "Beneath the Lion’s Paw;" "The Sea & Beyond"; and "Presence & Absence." Eighty-five of her stories and poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. Her fiction ranges from literary to psychological suspense, coming-of-age, comedy, and YA.

connect with author: website ~ X/twitter ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads

Guest Post:

A Carousel Ride: The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers

A Guest Post by Laury A. Egan

There is a lovely song by ABBA: “Take a Chance on Me.” Well, Readers, I hope you’ll take a chance on this very unusual book, The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers, or, as my publisher describes it:”…a dizzyingly imaginative and captivating pair of literary novellas.” 

Just as a carousel begins to turn slowly, so, too, does The Black Leopard’s Kiss, whose start is similar to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Then the speed increases when Sidonie (age sixty-four) entertains Martine, a young writer seeking her advice. They dine at Sidonie’s hillside house overlooking the ocean, drink champagne, and as Sidonie believes the evening is at a close, Martine reveals the shocking reason for her visit and plunges them into a series of spinning time regressions reminiscent of Orlando. As the plot twists and turns, Sidonie encounters half-remembered memories and re-experiences a series of complicated relationships. 

In the second novella, The Writer Remembers, Sidonie (age seventy) is haunted by a trauma that occurred when she was eleven. The memory of what happened has been repressed but lies like a treacherous barb, unsettling her sense of self. Told in three parts, Sidonie, grapples with trying to uncover frightening truths as well as her growing physical and mental infirmity.    

This is a work of literary magical realism (not fantasy or speculative fiction). Here, the firm purchase on reality becomes slippery as magical touches are employed to uncover what has long been hidden. 

So, yes, take a chance on this book. It’s unlike anything you’ve encountered.

My Review: 

I have previously read and enjoyed books by Laury A Egan. After hearing about their newest release, The Black Leopard's Kiss & The Writer Remembers, I was curious to get my hands on it to see what they had in store for their readers. I thought it was a pretty good read. It is two linked novellas. I was easily about to connect to my favorite character of Sidonie Ross. I understood her journey and found it interesting to see her in different time periods. There was an element of mystery and suspense that kept me interested on what she learns along the way. There were a few twists I never would have predicted for her. I thought the two stories were beautifully written that shows the reader drama, reflection, 

rejection, betrayal, moving forward, and finding oneself. I really enjoyed reading it. 

I am going to give The Black Leopard's Kiss & The Writer Remembers a very well deserved five plus stars. I believe that fans of the genres of Adult Fiction and Literary, with magical realism. I will be on the look out for more books written by the talented author, Laury A Egan. I would love to see where else their imagination will take her characters to next. This one is no doubt worth reading and I highly recommend it.

I received a digital copy of Laury A Egan’s The Black Leopard's Kiss & The Writer Remembers from the publisher but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.