Review: Probably my favorite John Inman book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 21, 2013
Yeah, John Inman is back with his next book. And right at the moment when I needed something funny and sweet. Serenading Stanley is exactly that, even in this order.Stanley moves into a building called Belladonna Arms. At the age of 22 he wants, really wants to escape his admittingly crazy, chainsmoking mother. So it doesn't matter that to get to his rooms he has six stairs to climb. And a house full of gays is actually freedom at it's best. Nobody will mind the awkward and unremarkable gay guy...so he thinks. Now this book delivers a typical John Inman trait: His side characters are an amount of originals and described in all their uniqueness. You can't help but to love and adore them.In this building Stanley also meets Roger, the most beautiful man in- and outside he's ever met. And because Stanley has a huge problem with his self eseteem he doesn't even see or realize all the cute and sometimes even shy attempts Roger makes to get to know him better. He can't believe someone as godlike as his downstairs neighbor could be intersted in him.Circumstances (and a mysterious batch of brownies) throw them together and after a looooot of doubt and insecurity mostly on Stanley's side they become a couple. And that's the moment where it gets really sweet, there are masses of adoring glances, looks, confessions of love, etc. If you aren't in the mood for that it might be a bit too much, it gets close to sappy, but only close because it wouldn't be a John Inman book if there weren't still bits of funny and unexpected humor thrown in between.John Inman has a very unique sense of humor. I asuume you either love it or don't understand it. It's has some comical quality I've never experienced with another writer. Humor yes, but not this kind. Personally I adore it, seriously, who else lets a overweight, hairy drag queen faint after climbing (or better...getting dragged by a possible tenant) six stairs? Or writes stuff like: "...and weighed one hundred thirty pounds with a hard-on. Oddly, without a hard-on he still weighed one hundred thirty pounds. You'd think you'd weigh less, wouldn't you?"Additionally I love that, even when he writes very romantic parts, his language stays clear, not a hint of too flowery expressions.Yes, I admit, John Inman is one of my favorite authors and I love what he writes. Why? Because it makes me smile, it makes me laugh, it makes me shake my head and it makes me sigh.Well done, thank you John for another great and entertaining reading experience.