mayhap

This is the third book I've read in the so-called Dance Sequence (which is not really a series, or I would never be reading them out of order): first I read the final and superlative This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, and the circled back to the second and sequence-naming [b:Dance on My Grave|479471|Dance on My Grave|Aidan Chambers|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aG%2Bu%2BjIwL._SL75_.jpg|467880], and those two books are not hugely similar to each other.

A third data-point is useful for triangulating some reoccurring themes. An obvious one is each book is narrated primarily through the writings of one character, who seeks to express themselves and their story to another, specific, character. These accounts are supplemented with other texts: news articles, letters, etc. All three books have complicated, partially-requited homosexual relationships -- Dance is the "most gay", obviously, while The Toll Bridge is the "least gay", with Jan and Adam both ultimately professing straightness in spite of Jan's meet cute with Adam's cock, and This is All is somewhere between the two, including the experimentation between Cordelia and Izumi and Will and Ariel's devotion to each other, even though it is only sexual on one side. These are all interesting and nuanced relationships, although it would be nice if two queer characters ended up together and alive for once.