Flywheel by Erin Gough Review and Author Feature

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a local writer's festival where I met Erin Gough, the author of Flywheel. I was also fortunate enough to listen to her speak at a panel about young adult literature. After the panel, I then bought her novel and thoroughly enjoyed reading, rating it 4/5 stars overall.

Flywheel was the first LGBT novel I have read and I must admit that I was nervous to venture into the genre as I would with any other new genre. When I listened to Erin speak I knew that Flywheel would be the perfect place to start. This was definitely a new adventure for me but I am so glad that I went on it.

Reflecting on Erin's feature on the panel, I felt very inspired regarding acceptance and simple human equality. I felt that Erin handled the topic very well as both her approach on the panel and her characters in Flywheel expressed LGBT people as merely ordinary people as they are. It is just like many people have many different hair colours. Some naturally have blonde, brown, black or red. It is something completely uncontrollable (except with dye of course but I'm talking about natural colour) yet each individual colour is equally beautiful and equally respectable. After all, we are all humans, we all have hair but the colour of our hair doesn't change the person we are. (My apologies for the laboured metaphor, it was just how I could explain the point!)

As for the novel Flywheel, the topic was covered with light-hearted humour and care. The writing style was direct, with the novel being narrated from the perspective of the main protagonist, Del.

The characters themselves all felt realistic and the reader felt genuine empathy towards each and every one of them and, whilst there were dislikeable characters, there was not a clear antagonist. However, this worked in favour of the book with the characters focusing on life hurdles and challenges which were plentiful.

The plot was fast paced yet also developed events with interesting and sufficient detail. The events that occurred were sometimes quite quirky and laterally concocted but I felt this worked well and kept the reader greatly engaged. When you begin reading it (which I definitely recommend you do) please bare in mind that this is not your average novel but please, also keep an open mind and just let it take you on its own, unique journey as any good book should do.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Flywheel and meeting Erin Gough. I felt this experience has helped me grow as both a reader and a person. I am very happy I took a leap of faith and tried out this new genre by reading Flywheel and I recommend you do too!

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Thanks so much for reading!

~Jess