Hadrians Lover

Hadrians Lover

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Preview — Hadrian's Lover
by Patricia Marie Budd

Patricia Marie Budd (Goodreads Author)

"Hadrian's Lover is a stunning novel about a dystopian society disguised as a utopian one...it raises difficult questions about right and wrong, government control, and an individual's right to express himself freely and be accepted for his sexual preference, regardless of what it is." - Tyler R. Tichelaar, PH.D. and author of the award-winning Narrow Lives What if you liv
"Hadrian's Lover is a stunning novel about a dystopian society disguised as a utopian one...it raises difficult questions about right and wrong, government control, and an individual's right to express himself freely and be accepted for his sexual preference, regardless of what it is." - Tyler R. Tichelaar, PH.D. and author of the award-winning Narrow Lives What if you lived in a world where homosexuality was the norm and all forms of heterosexual behavior were illegal? In the near future the human population has grown to such excess that the earth is no longer able to sustain humanity's astronomical numbers. Poverty, starvation, and disease are rampant. Only the country of Hadrian seems able to defend itself against the ravages of overpopulation by restricting its growth and encasing its country behind a defensive wall. Procreation does not happen by chance in Hadrian. There are no unwanted pregnancies. No accidents. All pregnancies occur through in vitro fertilization, and every citizen is responsible for rearing one of Hadrian's children. Heterosexuality is deemed the ill that has led humanity to the brink. In Hadrian, no one dares to express interest in the opposite sex; to do so would result in exile or reeducation. Hadrian's Lover tells the story of Todd Middleton, a teenage boy struggling to keep the secret of his heterosexuality. Read on, and feel with him as he suffers the indignities of a society determined to "cure" him of his plight. Patricia Marie Budd is a high school English teacher living in northern Alberta, Canada. She has been a safe zone for her LGBT* students throughout her twenty year career. Hadrian's Lover is her third novel.
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Published
August 22nd 2013
by New Generation Publishing

1909878472
(ISBN13: 9781909878471 )

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Apr 15, 2014

Ingrid Hall

rated it
really liked it

Wow, I don't quite know where to start because Hadrian's Lover is perhaps one of the heaviest and most disturbing books that I have ever read. Set in Hadrian, a fictional futuristic country in what used to be Canada, Hadrian is a seemingly Utopian country created purely for homosexuals. Heterosexuality has been outlawed, the population is tightly controlled, all embryos are screened and any showing heterosexual chromosomes are destroyed. Perhaps most disturbingly anyone caught engaging in hetero
Wow, I don't quite know where to start because Hadrian's Lover is perhaps one of the heaviest and most disturbing books that I have ever read. Set in Hadrian, a fictional futuristic country in what used to be Canada, Hadrian is a seemingly Utopian country created purely for homosexuals. Heterosexuality has been outlawed, the population is tightly controlled, all embryos are screened and any showing heterosexual chromosomes are destroyed. Perhaps most disturbingly anyone caught engaging in heterosexual relations are sent to government correctional facilities to make them see the error of their ways... The book is centered around a young man, Todd Middleton a closet "straight" and the struggles that he faces in what is in essence a very chilling and seriously fucked up world. Living within a stones throw from the real Hadrian's Wall, I was intrigued by her portrayal of life on the wall in the fictional world that she has created. The parallels between the real life ancient Scottish barbarians and her portrayals of the heterosexual barbarians attempting to breach the perimeters and defile their Utopian world was incredibly clever and well thought out. I also get that the author was on a rather bold mission to create and bring to life the polar opposite of the heterosexual, Utopian ideal so often preached by right wing extremists, and in this mission she was undoubtedly successful in showing how both end of the intolerance spectrum are as vile as each other. The book is written in the present tense which jarred with me at times. I also found her style a little blunt and contrived in places and I think the book which is undoubtedly thought provoking and a must read would have been even stronger if the author had attempted to blur the lines and muddy the waters as in it's current form it lacks nuance.
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Jan 07, 2014

Christopher Moss

rated it
it was ok

In a posited future a section of present day Canada has become a refuge for gay and lesbian persons. Christened Hadrian, after the Roman Emperor, it is a utopian project, not only providing sanctuary for sexual minorities but endeavoring to govern justly and to provide social and economic equality. In Hadrian it is illegal to be heterosexual. What happens then if you are born heterosexual? The central narrative of this novel is just that, if homosexuality can't be "cured" could it be any differ
In a posited future a section of present day Canada has become a refuge for gay and lesbian persons. Christened Hadrian, after the Roman Emperor, it is a utopian project, not only providing sanctuary for sexual minorities but endeavoring to govern justly and to provide social and economic equality. In Hadrian it is illegal to be heterosexual. What happens then if you are born heterosexual? The central narrative of this novel is just that, if homosexuality can't be "cured" could it be any different for heterosexuality? The novel attempts to show a country where heterosexual kids must go to reorientation prisons where they are in danger of sexual abuse by teachers and administrators. Couples who are not both gay wind up having the sort of fractured marriages today's couples face when one partner is not straight. Career and social opportunities are out of the question for those individuals who reveal or have revealed for them their membership in the scorned population of heterosexuals. Telling the story of one young boy trying to live successfully in the closet the author is able to show just how similar homosexual intolerance would be to heterosexual intolerance we know now. That's the first problem I had with this book. It's an entertaining if often disturbing novel, well written and thoughtful. I guess where I get uneasy is that I think it is arguable what the point of it is. One assumes the author wanted to show heterosexuals how awful life must be like for gays and lesbians, but it does not seem to me that this would be the conclusion such folks would come to from reading this book. They don't see everyone as equally valid nor deserving of social justice. This isn't the Star-bellied Sneetches vs. the ones with None Upon Thars, after all. It's about those perverts who go against God's law and who deserve punishment or reeducation. If anything I wonder if readers of this ilk would feel more justified in oppressing gays because they would be as depraved as ever in their own country. There are a lot of assumptions in the book, that heterosexism would eventually drive the world's populations into scarcity and war, but that gay people are naturally more just and peaceful. The social and environmental problems Hadrian is striving to solve were all caused by heterosexual injustice and habits. The only way to create a utopia like Adrian is to outlaw heterosexuality and kill everyone including homosexuals who try to cross the border. As a transgender person I could not help but notice that biological gender trumps sexual preference in the book. One character is punished because she dated a cross dresser whom she at first believed was really a woman. I beg your pardon? The writing implies that the cross dresser does this intentionally to trip up closeted straights. I took offense at that, feeling relegated to the whole "but you aren't really a man" notion same as it is in binary gender and sexual culture. I read this novel some time ago, a couple months perhaps, and I am glad I waited to put my thoughts about it together. With some distance I see less of the storyline and more of the agenda. I am confident the author meant well, but unfortunately she runs into the same problems as Superman's Bizarro World: you can't just turn a whole concept on its head and have it work. In this case you run into the danger of accomplishing worse than nothing, but actually stepping on your own feet politically. In the author's message she reveals her wish to provide a document that supports gays and lesbians. False assumptions make it a flawed crusade.
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Shelves:
jolly-gay ,
hey-yo-doomsday ,
restricted-freedom ,
military-warfare ,
use-abuse ,
angst ,
darky-dark ,
outcasts ,
science-fiction

3.5 stars! Note, this book is not for the faint-hearted. Though not explicitly written, some things may disturb you. In the year 21--, the planet is finally breaking under overpopulation, humans reaching a stunning twenty billion in numbers. In the midst of chaos and starvation, the newly founded country Hadrian invites homosexuals from all over the world to join their sustainable and ecological haven, since extremists threaten their lives. Here you need not worry about starvation, lack of resour
3.5 stars! Note, this book is not for the faint-hearted. Though not explicitly written, some things may disturb you. In the year 21--, the planet is finally breaking under overpopulation, humans reaching a stunning twenty billion in numbers. In the midst of chaos and starvation, the newly founded country Hadrian invites homosexuals from all over the world to join their sustainable and ecological haven, since extremists threaten their lives. Here you need not worry about starvation, lack of resources, outside sicknesses and overpopulation. Hadrian regulates and keeps the balance. The only thing asked of you is, that you're homosexual. When the minority is suddenly turned into the majority, how will society unfold and the social balance evolve? In Hadrian's Lover, we follow the Hunter's family and their acquaintances in this futuristic society. Will it turn out to be a Utopia or a Dystopia? It takes some pages for the story to flow, but then it certainly begins to flow. Already after the first couple of pages, you'll realize what opinion the author expects of you. Although this book is about ethics and morals, you are being held by your hand pedagogically the whole time, as if you would not be able to make any ethically valid opinions of your own without it being spelled out for you in neon letters. This part of the book frustrates me, since it would have given the story an edge, if we were allowed to come to some moral conclusions ourselves. That being said, the last half of the book had me sitting on edge, needing to know what happens next. It is heart wrenching and sickening how the situation slowly deteriorates, the reader only being able to writher and squirm through the horrors. And that, I always love to experience! This part gives the book a much needed edge, that saves it from it's lack of subtlety. In the end, I had a good time reading this, and if you're ready for conscience-inducing nastiness, this might be your ride. Summarising, the ethical aspect of the book is far too blunt and unrefined, as if not expecting much of the reader, but the heart-wrenching story somewhat makes up for it.
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Shelves:
am-i-gay-or-not ,
dystopian

Hadrian's Lover wouldn't have found its way onto my Kindle if it wasn't for the fulsome praise it received on 'So So Gay'. It's actually the sort of book I contemplated writing - tables turned on sexual norms and all that sort of thing - although I hadn't taken the plot development any further. So I'm bound to say at the outset that the basic premise is a good one and it's hats off to the author for delivering the goods. I don't think I'd offer the same sort of praise to the publisher, though, a
Hadrian's Lover wouldn't have found its way onto my Kindle if it wasn't for the fulsome praise it received on 'So So Gay'. It's actually the sort of book I contemplated writing - tables turned on sexual norms and all that sort of thing - although I hadn't taken the plot development any further. So I'm bound to say at the outset that the basic premise is a good one and it's hats off to the author for delivering the goods. I don't think I'd offer the same sort of praise to the publisher, though, as clearly some heavy-handed censorship has happened at various stages of the book's gestation. Some of this is only too apparent in the author's rather wordy and typo-ridden introduction, and the reality is that what could have been touching examples of burgeoning gay sexuality - including between early teens - has been scrubbed, leaving highly unpleasant brutality - anal rape and buttock beating, for instance - in its place plus a rather sour taste in the mouth. That left me puzzled whether the author had been obliged to accept that her utopian society was more doomed than she'd originally envisaged - a terminally dystopian utopia, if you like. I also found the book stylistically strange: much of the writing was matter of fact and blandly repetitive - particularly in the irritating missives from Melissa E - and the author seemed strangely averse to using contractions in her dialogue. She was also an occasional victim of the Apple inflicted automatic word substitution: 'exaggerate' instead of 'exacerbate' and 'nativity' in place of 'naivety', for instance. And I really didn't get why all the sexy boys of Hadrian couldn't be thought desirable without dolling themselves up in make-up and spending hours on their hair and clothes every morning - that's just not the sort of gay utopia I'd envisage. Actually, the best (meaning realistic) sections were those where teens were talking amongst themselves or in class with teachers, but at the expense of being dragged out far too long. And the transcripts at the end came across as yet more rather unsubtle slamming home of the message. 'So So Gay' gave it five stars, but I'm afraid that it's just two stars from me.
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Jan 06, 2015

Ryan Baron

rated it
really liked it

Heavy-hitting, poignant and deeply disturbing, this novel details the lives of several characters living with the xenophobic "country" of Hadrian, a homosexual "utopia." In a world where heterosexuality is shunned and illegal, budding youth must contend with their own desires and sexual awakenings. "Strais" must be wary not to be uncovered, for fear of being placed into brutal reeducation camps. A must-read, in my opinion, especially for an understanding of what life is like for a sexual minorit
Heavy-hitting, poignant and deeply disturbing, this novel details the lives of several characters living with the xenophobic "country" of Hadrian, a homosexual "utopia." In a world where heterosexuality is shunned and illegal, budding youth must contend with their own desires and sexual awakenings. "Strais" must be wary not to be uncovered, for fear of being placed into brutal reeducation camps. A must-read, in my opinion, especially for an understanding of what life is like for a sexual minority, or indeed, any minority. The novel begins innocently enough, setting the stage for later atrocities, concluding in an entirely unexpected way as the action accelerates midway through the novel with the discovery and "rape" of a heterosexual adolescent. Most decidedly not for the faint-hearted, the graphic imagery and heavy nature of the novel is not to be taken lightly, but for those with the stomach, this is assuredly a great read.
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Aug 21, 2021

Geary

rated it
it was ok

Too long, too detailed, agenda driven

Jan 22, 2020

Dennis Johnson

rated it
it was amazing

I loved this book. I had to put it down quite often because of the strong emotions it invoked. Heartbreaking is a good descriptor.

Jul 11, 2014

Jean Roberta

rated it
really liked it

Imagine a world that has fallen into chaos because of overpopulation and global warming; according to many, this future is unavoidable unless drastic measures are taken to prevent it. Now imagine Hadrian, a land of peace and plenty in a newly-temperate zone in what was once Canada, including Hudson Bay. This country features gender equality, political stability, a “green” economy, universally-accessible health care and education. Who wouldn’t want to live there? This is the setting for a fantasy
Imagine a world that has fallen into chaos because of overpopulation and global warming; according to many, this future is unavoidable unless drastic measures are taken to prevent it. Now imagine Hadrian, a land of peace and plenty in a newly-temperate zone in what was once Canada, including Hudson Bay. This country features gender equality, political stability, a “green” economy, universally-accessible health care and education. Who wouldn’t want to live there? This is the setting for a fantasy novel that functions as a political allegory. The four founding principles of the nation are: “Hadrian’s chosen lifestyle is homosexual; Hadrian is a safe haven for homosexuals; Hadrian’s goal is to create and maintain a stable human population; Hadrian will create an ec
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