A review of Kevin Frane's three novels, as I just finished up reading the last of them.





It’s the story of a thousand and one summer blockbusters. “I was really, really into it, but once it was over the plot didn’t make sense.”
Having just finished reading the last of Kevin Frane’s three novels, I found myself thinking those same words, but for different reasons. In a typical blockbuster, we turn off part of our analytical mind and just enjoy the rollercoaster for what the explosion-fueled, CGI-laden, action-packed spectacle that it is. Then, later, when we’ve finished watching and turned our analytical minds back on, and the things we didn’t focus on are shown for the plothole-riddled things they are.
Kevin’s three novels—Thousand Leaves, The Seventh Chakra, and Summerhill—are largely lacking in action spectacle (with the exception of several scenes in The Seventh Chakra), instead doing more to evoke a sense of wonder. Maybe it’s because of his experience with translation, but there is something flowing about his words, that wraps you up and carries you on with a gentle current. Watching the worlds of the novels unfold feels like watching Bob Ross paint or listening to the background chatter of a Robert Altman movie.
And then, all three novels leave with a feeling of not quite making sense. Unlike the typical Hollywood story, where coincidental or impossible things happen to cover up the writer getting themselves into a corner, here it feels more like Kevin had a much larger world going on that he didn’t have time to explain (or, perhaps, because whimsy carried him in a different direction). It still reads as flawed, but for a different reason.
To describe the novels in detail…
Thousand Leaves is Kevin Frane’s first novel, a disaster story with an ensemble cast. (Think movies like 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow.) It follows the rapidly spreading disease, which ultimately drives its victims to suicide, through the lens of a gay club in an urban metropolis. The setting is an all furry world implied to be a far future earth that has forgotten humans.
The Seventh Chakra takes place in the same world as Thousand Leaves, acting as a prequel. It is a spy novel and follows the members of a secret society on their quest to piece together the history of the world. There’s a good dose of religion and mysticism, and forgotten languages make their place as mystical macguffins.
Summerhill takes place in an unrelated world, so far as I am aware. It catalogues the adventures of the titular Summerhill, a dog with reality- and time-warping abilities as he stumbles through a series of adventures that would not be out of place in a Doctor Who episode, all the while learning more about who he is and learning how to control his powers.
The novel also show Kevin’s steady progression as a writer.
Thousand Leaves reads like a first novel, uneven and with some significant flaws. The ultimate resolution of the plague comes as a deus ex machina, while the ending adds a bunch of new characters and twists that are barely foreshadowed. The world-building is all tell and no show. (We’re told all the time how xenophobic this city is supposed to be, and we see it in maybe one line.) It does pull off several clever ideas though: though it’s not apparent at first, many of the main characters are gay for an important reason.
I feel the cons outweigh the pros of this one. It’s not a bad read, but an unsteady one, and will probably do best among fans of the disaster genre.
The Seventh Chakra does a lot better. It opens with a slick espionage-turned-action sequence that would not be out of place opening a James Bond movie. The latter half of the story is a spy mission gone wrong, paranoia thick in the air and double-crosses commonplace, feeling like classic Fleming or Le Carré. The only major fault I had with the novel was that in between these two parts, the story falls into a deep lull as we get plot exposition (that will be important later) after plot exposition (that will be important later) after plot exposition (that, you guessed it, will be important later). The Seventh Chakra also stumbles a bit on the parts where it connects up to Thousand Leaves, but it is all in all a fun spy novel.
I find it a lot easier to recommend The Seventh Chakra. Certainly if you like action or spy stories, you should pick it up, but even if your interest in those topics is only passing, it’s worth a read.
It’s at Summerhill that Kevin really hits his stride. I suspect readers will be of one of two minds on it. If you need a strong plotline and a clear story arc, then Summerhill is not for you. If, on the other hand, you need to be taken by the hand and led on a tour of the weird and wonderful, plot be damned, then what-are-you-doing-pick-this-book-up-now-no-stop-what-you-are-doing-go-to-Furplanet-and-get-this-now-I-said-NOW. Summerhill is a cavalcade of exotic locales, metaphysical mysteries, and raw imagination scrambled, cooked, and served with a side of ketchup. It’s an entire season of Doctor Who (Moffat era, not Davies) distilled down to its fantastic essence and put in book form.
Simply put, Summerhill is one of those books you read for the experience of reading it. I had a great experience reading it and would easily put it in my top five favorite furry novels. Despite having read it around the time it came out, several scenes and images from the book still stand out clearly in my mind.