The Holiday Detour by Jane Kolven | ARC Review

The Holiday Detour by Jane Kolven

• Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, September 15th 2020
• Genre: Romance, LGBTQ+
• Format: Paperback (eARC)
• Page Count: 240 pages
• My Rating: ★★★ (3/5)

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Content warnings: misgendering from main character and minor character, car accident, recalling parental loss

As someone who is both genderqueer and sapphic, The Holiday Detour is very difficult for me to review. I wanted to love it so badly but I didn’t. I appreciate Kolven writing a sapphic story featuring an f/gq relationship however, so I rounded up my rating. There are too many issues that kept me from fully enjoying the story, but it was nonetheless chaotically entertaining.

On Christmas Eve, Dana Gottfried’s (32, lesbian, Jewish) beloved car breaks down while she is on her way to visit Nana. When animal scientist Charlie Barlow (genderqueer) rescues Dana from the roadside, they embark on a messy holiday adventure where nothing goes right. The only thing that seems right is their attraction to each other.

The story touches upon subjects including sexuality and gender identity. Dana, who identifies as a lesbian, finds herself hopelessly drawn toward Charlie, who is genderqueer. I like this setting, but I do need to point out an extremely problematic sentence of Charlie’s: “maybe you’re not only entirely attracted to cis lesbian women.” Trans lesbians are lesbians. I understand that Charlie wants to talk about genderqueer and/or nonbinary people, but this comment actually excludes transwomen who are lesbians and that is not okay. It is okay, however, for a lesbian to be attracted to someone who does not identify as a woman.

From the very first chapter of The Holiday Detour, we know even from Dana’s first-person perspective that she is not a likable character. She complains too much, fakes too hard, and doesn’t even respect the name of her childhood acquaintance Mitch. I see Mitch going by a new name as a augury of Charlie’s genderqueerness. And was I really surprised that Dana also fails to respect Charlie’s pronouns? Not really. But since Charlie doesn’t seem to mind it much, I am not going to reprimand Dana on her blatant misgendering throughout most of the book. But I feel like misgendering was used as a plot device here, and that makes me very uncomfortable.

Far too often we have perfect main characters in romance because this genre is inherently happy. Yet Dana has to be one of the least appealing leads ever. She is extremely judgey and an awful person in general. I think this is an oddly nice change, because though it is frustrating and sometimes angering to be in her head, it is also refreshing to see someone so imperfect. In Asia, there is a phrase called Princess Syndrome (公主病), which describes a woman who is narcissistic, egocentric, and materialistic (its male counterpart is Prince Syndrome). Dana is exactly that. The closest English word is probably “snobby.” Though I think Charlie deserves someone better despite a lot of lying going on on their end, I like how Kolven made Dana fall for them at their worst. It is the sort of balance in their relationship that I had hoped to see.

I want to clarify another thing that Dana didn’t get right: genderqueer/nonbinary people don’t have to be androgynous or have a mix of feminine and masculine traits. They do not owe anyone androgyny and can appear hyper-feminine or masculine yet still be genderqueer/nonbinary. Also, they can use binary pronouns, and that doesn’t make them any less genderqueer/nonbinary, either.

The Holiday Detour is a rom com filled with disasters that is fun and mostly enjoyable. The whole story spanned five days with the majority in two days—Christmas Eve and Christmas. It began and ended with Dana’s distaste for Christmas songs, a reference to the holiday gone awry. [13 Sep 2020]

I received an e-ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.