The Queering - Brooke Skipstone

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this eArc

Trapped between a homicidal brother and a homophobic podcaster eager to reveal her lesbian romance novels, a seventy-year-old grandmother seeks help in Clear, Alaska.
Suffocating in a loveless marriage and lonely existence, Taylor MacKenzie lives only through her writing, using the pen name Brooke Skipstone, her best friend in college and lover before her death in 1974.
Afraid of being murdered before anyone in her family or community knows her life story, Taylor writes an autobiography about her time with Brooke and shares it with those closest to her, hoping for understanding and acceptance.
Accused of promoting the queering and debasement of America by a local podcaster, Taylor embroils the conservative community in controversy but fights back with the help of a new, surprising friend.

This book was pretty disturbing to read. Firstly, because Taylor uses Brooke Skipstone as a pen name which is the name of this book's author. Secondly, because there was so much hate, so many insults and slurs against queer people. I know there are places where people can be so queerphobic and where it is the norm, but it still felt too much. It actually is also a problem in the book, it was all too black and white. The queerphobic podcaster is also a racist, a pedophile, a blackmailer, etc. There was no nuance in any of the characters, and the relationships between them were too quick to form.

I thought it disappointing to show queer people as a monolith: all cis women and very VERY sex positive and so open with it! I cringed so much when Shannon was like "oh yeah my granddaughter and her girlfriend are so loud during sex that the neighboors complained, aren't they a hoot!", and when she had sex with Taylor, the granddaughter and her girlfriend were almost bursting in the room. Boundaries anyone?? It didn't feel realistic. Also, I couldn't with all the squealing.

The characters talk about Taylor's other books (which are also written by the author), praising them, saying they are such a good representation of queer characters but they only talk about the smut scenes. And it was really weird that the author presented her books like masterpieces in that way. Smut scenes are really something I don't vibe with, and here there were too many to my liking. I kinda understood Taylor's sons who didn't want Taylor to share her autobiography with her grandkids. It was important that they learn their grandmother's story and true identity, but did they really need to know all the sex she had? It made me uncofortable. 

The ending was nice enough, even if it was "thanks to our guns!" 

I rated the book 3 stars on Goodreads, but it was more a 2 stars, I just didn't want to tank it down as I see its importance in the representation of old queer people and (queer) love between older women.

CW: a lot of smut

TW: murder, hate speech, slurs, queerphobia, transphobia, lesbophobia, racism, death threats, white supremacism, grief, alcohol, drugs, overdose, fire, blackmailing, pedopornography, conspiracy theories

Rep: lesbian MC, lesbian SC, possible bi SC, mexican SC (their ethnicity is not clear as they are described by a racist person), drag queen (maybe a trans woman, again it's not clear)