"My boyfriend told me he's in love with a man. A weird, geeky, supposedly-also-straight man. I suppose you're going to tell me that doesn't make him gay? That I should stay with him, in some weird little totally-heterosexual trio?
—Caroline
A 2015 polyamorous romantic comedy by Redfern Jon Barrett set in south Wales.
Caroline and her Dom live out their normal lives among the poverty, alcoholics, and street preachers of Swansea. But when Dom and his straight roommate fall in love - a passionate, secret, nonsexual love - their lives are transformed into a queer chaos. The battle between preachers and drag queens, skinheads and sex workers, boyfriend and girlfriend, is set to change the city forever.
The Giddy Death of the Tropes:
- Bury Your Gays: Avoided, contrary to the title.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Dom's relationship with his ex girlfriend ended when she caught him pleasuring himself to a text message.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Christina's roommate Nomi is extremely demanding and possessive, though she also goes to great lengths to protect the woman she cares about.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Dom fits the trope. His narrative rambles and goes on some extreme tangents.
- Commitment Issues: Just how committed two heterosexual men can be to one another is a central theme of the novel.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rutti's dry and often cruel sense of humor is fueled by his hatred of the city around him.
- Drag Queen: High Hopes.
- Dumb Blonde: Subverted with Caroline. Her blonde hair, occasional insecurity, and occupation as a bartender cause many to perceive her as this, but she's also a postgraduate student with a strong political and social awareness.
- Ensemble Cast: There are four narrators to the novel, each central to the plot.
- Ethical Slut: Rutti is a queer male variant from the outset. Caroline and her boyfriend Dom later join him in this outlook.
- Free-Love Future: The future scenes show a society in which polyamory is increasingly accepted, the younger generation are unconsciously pansexual, and three-way marriages are becoming legal reality.
- Gay Conservative: Paul dislikes other queers who engage in drag and non-monogamy, and is at points overtly sexist.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: focuses on the committed relationship of roommates Richard and Dom, and their polyamorous union with Dom's girlfriend Caroline.
- Homoerotic Subtext: The plot focuses on the relationship between roommates Dom and Richard, who become increasingly romantic despite the unwavering heterosexuality of each.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Dom and Richard. Their attempt to build a life together despite each being heterosexual (and the former having a girlfriend) is central to the story.
- Polyamory: the main theme of the book, following the love between the characters Dom, Richard, and Caroline. Scenes set in the future show a greater acceptance of nonmonogamous relationships.
- Queer Romance
- Team Pet: This is how Rutti sees the fundamentalist Christian he 'adopts'.
