Dance Your Way To Psychic Sex

Alice Turing is a friend of mine who has written a book. I don't usually do book reviews on this blog, but I'm making an exception for Alice, for two reasons.

First, she's had a lousy run of luck lasting several years. Her first novel was published some years ago by a small press who then went bust. She got an agent for her second novel, and he did get her a deal with a big publisher in Germany, but then he turned out not to be very professional so she had to end that relationship. So her first novel is out of print and her second novel is only available in German. The whole experience demoralised her so much that she's given up writing and taken up a new career.

But Alice still felt terribly frustrated that her second novel, although published, couldn't be read by any of her friends or family. So she's publishing it herself. I read and commented on an early draft for her, so I knew it was much better than her first novel. That's the second reason I'm willing to review it here: because it is a really good book.

Dance Your Way To Psychic Sex is a difficult book to categorise. It's a contemporary novel which is neither literary nor commercial, as those terms are generally understood. It is anarchic, hilarious, and very readable. The characters are unusual, their relationships convoluted, and they spend most of their time misunderstanding each other. The book contains a strong element of farce, yet it also makes serious points about belief, cults, religion, happiness, lies and truth. It's clever without being pompous or patronising; funny without being puerile; thought-provoking without being hard work. I enjoyed it enormously.

A great deal of effort has gone into the production of this book. It will be a beautiful object to own, containing a memorable, compelling story. All that for only a tenner. I strongly recommend that you head over to Alice's website and get yourself a copy. And if you can't justify the expense for yourself - or even if you can - it would make an excellent gift for anyone who likes an entertaining read that is a bit out of the ordinary.