{"id":13479,"date":"2020-10-03T07:42:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T11:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=13479"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:27:21","slug":"invitation-to-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13479","title":{"rendered":"Invitation to the Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Invitation to the Blues<\/a><\/em> (2018) Roan Parrish<\/a> (Small Change)<\/p>\n

\"Invitation<\/a>This story is not for everyone.<\/p>\n

So there I was, working in my younger brother\u2019s sandwich shop to make rent after moving out of my parents\u2019 house, where I\u2019d gone to temporarily lie low when I was released from the hospital I ended up in after trying to kill myself. <\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not the start of a grim joke. Just my grim fucking life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jude Lucen is back home, trying to put his life back together, and trying not to miss the pieces of his life that were good, back in Boston.<\/p>\n

He’s also trying very hard not to want Faron, the beautiful, graceful man who works at Small Change.<\/p>\n

The thing about this story is it spoke a lot of truths, and they were hard.<\/p>\n

Usually, I didn\u2019t like being touched. It didn\u2019t feel good and it made me aware of a body I\u2019d rather forget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

every day when I was okay shimmered with a threat just out of view. I\u2019d stop in the middle of doing something and check in: did I still feel okay? I did. I would reassure myself, See! You are still okay! <\/p>\n

But once I began to look down and check that the ground was still flat, every step felt like the one that might suddenly slope downhill. And even when it didn\u2019t, the edge felt like it was growing nearer and each day became more and more vertiginous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Depression and anxiety were self-abnegating and self-centering at the same time. It was so easy to believe that because my feelings were huge, they exerted a force beyond me. It was so easy to forget that even though I was always being forced to think about myself, not everyone else did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to choose,\u201d he said. \u201cChoosing feels hard because it could always be a mistake. And if it\u2019s a mistake and you chose it, then it\u2019s your fault. You don\u2019t want it to be your fault. You already feel guilty enough. You don\u2019t want to feel any more.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019d worried about taking (any other medications), convinced the slightest change to my chemical cocktail would send me spiraling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, yeah.<\/p>\n

All those truths.<\/p>\n

But it was a good story underneath those heavy truths. Faron wants to convince Jude he is worthy of love. Jude trying to get beyond his past and what he’d come to believe about himself.<\/p>\n

And Faron himself has his own issues, most of which are in the background of Jude’s, butonce Jude puts himself back together, he tries his best to be there for Faron when he needs him.<\/p>\n

This is a boinking book, but it’s a whole lot more than that.<\/p>\n

Publisher : Monster Press
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Invitation to the Blues (2018) Roan Parrish (Small Change) This story is not for everyone. So there I was, working in my younger brother\u2019s sandwich shop to make rent after moving out of my parents\u2019 house, where I\u2019d gone to temporarily lie low when I was released from the hospital I ended up in after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,207,148,26,56,934],"tags":[210,50,211,544,224],"class_list":["post-13479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-mental-health-rep","category-queer","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-trigger-warnings","tag-anxiety","tag-boinking","tag-depression","tag-mm","tag-roan-parrish"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3vp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22184,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22184","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":0},"title":"The Pride of Garnet Run","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pride of Garnet Run (2022) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) (H)is brain was very loud, and he needed to put thoughts into music to quiet them down. \"This place was built in 1927. This all used to be bigger, but they turned it from one screen to three in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Pride of Garnet Run","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/The_Pride_of_Garnet_Run.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13674,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13674","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":1},"title":"The Remaking of Corbin Wale","author":"Michelle","date":"December 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Remaking of Corbin Wale (2017) Roan Parrish Alex Barrow broke up with his boyfriend and lost his job so he has headed back to Ann Arbor and taken over his parent's coffee shop--turning it into his dream bakery. The best bakeries had a cohesive vision. You didn\u2019t want a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Remaking of Corbin Wale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/The-Remaking-of-Corbin-Wale.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21114,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21114","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":2},"title":"The Rivals of Casper Road","author":"Michelle","date":"November 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Rivals of Casper Road (2022) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) This is the fourth book in the Garnet Run series (actually the fifth, because there is a novella in there as well) and the characters from those stories all make appearances here. Every year, the residents of Casper Road have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Rivals of Casper Road","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/The_Rivals_of_Casper_Road.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14045,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14045","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":3},"title":"Best Laid Plans","author":"Michelle","date":"March 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Best Laid Plans (2021) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) Charlie Matheson cares for people. It's what he's done since his parents died and he became guardian for his brother and took over the family business. Rye Janssen has spent his time bouncing from place to place, never finding a home. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Best Laid Plans","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Best-Laid-Plans-676x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17739,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/17739","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":4},"title":"Best Laid Plans","author":"Michelle","date":"September 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Best Laid Plans (2021) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) This is another story where both characters have dealt with a lot, but we see they learned healthy ways to deal with their shit. He looked at the situation and chose to acknowledge all the dimensions of it. Dimensions (as he thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Best Laid Plans","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Best-Laid-Plans.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22165,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22165","url_meta":{"origin":13479,"position":5},"title":"Best Laid Plans","author":"Michelle","date":"August 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Best Laid Plans (2021) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) He looked at the situation and chose to acknowledge all the dimensions of it. Dimensions (as he thought of them) weren\u2019t positive or negative. They were simply the truth of how he felt about things. He cut off his thought spiral and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Best Laid Plans","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Best-Laid-Plans.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}