Literature / The Change Room

Eliza is a middle class woman of forty two living in Toronto with her husband and two sons. Although she loves them, Eliza is unsatisfied with her life, especially as she and Andrew now have sex rarely. On meeting a younger woman at the pool, Shar, who's very beautiful, Eliza grows entranced with her. Embarking on an affair, Eliza's revived by their passion, though she struggles with her guilt at the same time.

Tropes:

• 20 Minutes into the Past: The book is set in 2011, to judge by the fact the Arab Spring's prominent on the news. It was published in 2017.
• All Lesbians Want Kids: Shar's ex-girlfriend Giselle really wanted kids, while Shar had no desire for them. Giselle thought she'd simply come around and be happy having them together even so. Since this wasn't the case, Shar ended their relationship.
• Amazon Chaser: In a female version, Eliza is very attracted to Shar, a woman whom she meets at the pool, and really loves her lean, muscular form (Shar's a keen swimmer), dubbing her the Amazon before she's been told her name.
• Berserk Button: Shar gets angry when Eliza confuses Persians and Arabs (she's half-Persian), going on a rant about how bad Arabs are after this.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: Eliza is married to Andrew, and loves him still although they have some issues, though nothing severe. However, when Eliza meets a beautiful younger woman, Shar, at the pool she grows very attracted to her. Soon they have an affair, which Eliza feels quite guilty about but is too satisfied by her passionate sex life with Shar to stop. Toward the end, she confesses, and it's left undecided if she'll choose Andrew, Shar, or both of them might work.
• Brutal Honesty: Eliza is given to saying whatever's on her mind, even when it's insulting to others and shocking otherwise. Andrew, her husband, feels embarrassed but curious or amused too about this.
• Chick Magnet: Andrew, Eliza's husband, is a handsome, charming man who always draws women to him. He never cheats on her though.
• Closet Key: Shar enjoys having awakened multiple women to their sapphic desire when having sex with them as part of a threesome to indulge their male partners.
• Cultural Posturing: Shar, who's half-Persian, is very offended to have them and Arabs confused. She's convinced Persians are an advanced, cultured people while Arabs are uncivilized barbarians compared to them.
• Contrived Coincidence: Martin, Eliza's brother-in-law, just so happens to be a past client of her lover Shar. Further, he blows into town right when Shar was going to have dinner with Eliza and Andrew (Martin's brother), so he comes too, with them recognizing each other there.
• Disappeared Dad: Eliza's father died when she was twelve in a car accident while driving during a snowstorm. She's been paranoid about driving in snowstorms ever since, and seeing how her mother struggled following this set herself on having her own business.
• Ethical Slut: Shar is a sex worker and likes unattached sex even outside of this, rejecting the idea of her ever marrying. However, she's totally honest about this and always makes sure that her partner is on board.
• Female Gaze: Of the sapphic kind. Eliza is described as she looks at and assesses other women's naked bodies in the public change rooms and showers while at the pool, particularly Shar, whom she finds highly attractive.
• Forbidden Fruit: Eliza first heard about masturbation and other sexual activities from a pamphlet the Jehovah's Witnesses gave her as a pre-teen when her mother was taking her family to the Kingdom Hall. She was curious about these forbidden things, and soon learned more in the public library, with her masturbating soon after for the first time, aroused partly by the taboo of them. Her lover Shar also has it suggested by a friend that part of why Eliza attracts her is because she's married.
• Forced Out of the Closet: Shar made a speech at a gay rights rally when she hadn't come out to her dad as queer. It got put on the Internet, and a relative told him disapprovingly.
• Friends with Benefits: Shar has arrangements like this with mulitiple other people. Most of them are, or started as, clients of hers, but she also feels genuine affection for them outside of this too.
• Gay Romantic Phase: Andrew, Eliza's husband, is aware she once had a relationship with a woman in her twenties but thinks it was just a phase, as Eliza told him. It turns out she's still into women though, and has an affair with one in the present.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Eliza and Shar make out in a bar, with the male bartender watching them despite feeling ashamed because it turns him on so much.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Eliza got pregnant without intending to both times, but she never considered an abortion even when she's a pro-choice feminist. In the case of her friend Zi Lan, she actually scheduled an appointment to have an abortion after also getting pregnant unexpectedly, then couldn't go through with it.
• Hereditary Homosexuality: Shar is queer, liking men and woman, while her aunt's a lesbian.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Janet is alarmed and upset after learning her daughter Sophie is a lesbian. Eliza, her friend, is annoyed by this (as she's attracted to women along with men herself, though Janet isn't aware) and coaxes her to tell Sophie she loves her still no matter what, rather than becoming hung up on it. Janet thankfully isn't that prejudiced and takes Eliza's advice.
• High-Class Call Girl: Shar is a well paid, very beautiful sex worker who does this for money to get her degree in therapy at the university. At one point Shar even mentally calls herself this.
• I Call Him "Mr. Happy": In a variation, Shar turns out to have a name for her large strap-on dildo: Stacey.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Eliza howls when Shar makes her climax in her apartment the first time, it's so good.
• Killing in Self-Defense: Shar's rapist had told her afterward that he'd kill her and dump her body in the sea, with no one being the wiser. When he turned away for a moment she grabbed his knife and killed him with it to save herself.
• Lipstick Lesbian:
  • Eliza and Shar are both overall feminine women who have an affair together. They have long hair, enjoying wearing dresses and putting on makeup for special occasions, while both usually dress more casually, with a less feminine style. Both are attracted to men too though.
  • Sophie and her girlfriend Binta are feminine teenage girls with long hair who like wearing flattering, revealing clothes.
• Longing Look: Eliza spends a long time gazing at Shar while both are naked in the shower with an obvious attraction. Though she doesn't seem to react at first, Shar quickly notices this.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Eliza and Shar have sex in the change room of the pool the first time, with her watching carefully to see if anyone's coming.
• Manly Tears: Andrew breaks down crying on learning Eliza cheated on him. She mentally notes it's only the third time she's ever seen him cry, with the first two being when their sons were born.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Eliza covers herself with the bedsheet after telling Andrew she's been having an affair post-coitus, explicitly comparing it to how women on TV shows act. In this case though it's due to her shame over the adultery.
• Ms. Fanservice: Shar's very beautiful, with her breasts, buttocks and legs described at length. Further, she's the most open and unabashed of the characters about her sexuality. She and Eliza have several explicit sex scenes, which mostly focus on describing Shar since they're from Eliza's perspective.
• No Ending: The book ends right after both Eliza and Andrew learn Shar was once a sex worker as she's about to tell both of them about it. It's left unknown as to how either of them will react, along with whether Eliza will stay with Andrew, Shar or both.
• Older Than They Look: Eliza is forty two, though her husband Andrew thinks she looks twenty still, and is very admiring of her for it.
• One Head Taller: Eliza only comes up to Shar's shoulder, and Andrew, her husband, is stightly taller still.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Shar's full name turns out to be Shahrzad, though she's almost always called just Shar.
• Open-Minded Parent: Binta's parents were fine with her having her girlfriend Sophie over, and even their having sex together, it's revealed.
• Parental Favoritism: Corrine, Andrew's mother, thinks his brother Martin hangs the moon and gushes about him constantly.
• Parent with New Paramour: Eliza's mother grew close to Garry, a Jehovah's Witness elder, on the death of her husband and she joined the religion, accepting his marriage proposal. Her son though believed he was a creep and threatened to kill Garry, so she called it off, leaving her new religion too.
• Polyamory: Shar has multiple clients/Friends with Benefits and she's happy that way, preferring it over one exclusive relationship, explicitly disdaining monogamy. Eliza, her new lover, is made aware of this and she accepts the fact Shar also sees other people.
• Queer Establishing Moment:
  • Eliza spends a lot of time staring at Shar naked in the pool's shower, with it being made clear it's more than admiration or envy for her beauty. She then mentally remembers having had relationships with women in the past too, not just men. Later on Shar shows that she too is attracted to women when she hits on Eliza after noticing this and they have sex.
  • It turns out Sophie, a supporting character, is a lesbian. She'd kept this from her mom, who found out due to her snooping into Sophie's phone, where she had found photos of her with her girlfriend, and discovered Sophie was having sex with her during "sleepovers".
• Rape as Backstory:
  • Shar it turns out was raped by a man who'd invited her to a party on his boat near Marseilles. It took her by surprise completely, with her having difficulty trusting men again for a long time after that, and this is the most affecting part of her past we learn about at first.
  • Martin was also groomed by his female teacher in his pre teens, after which she had begun raping him under the cover of a "romance". He convinced himself it was romance, and claimed that his mother was just imagining things after she discovered this, so his rapist got away with this. Only later did he realize what she really did to him.
• Secretly Gay Activity: Sophie frequently having sleepovers with Binta it turns out was cover for their having sex together, as they're actually girlfriends. Binta's parents knew about and were fine with this, but Sophie's mom was unaware (which she's initially very upset by).
• Sex Goddess: Shar is extremely good at giving women orgasms, as Eliza learns. Eliza gets six in a row from her when they first have sex at Shar's place.
• Sex Is Good: Shar, a High-Class Call Girl and Ethical Slut, believes this firmly (at least if all the parties are enjoying the sex).
• Sexless Marriage: Eliza complains how she and her husband now have sex rarely, going months without anything. When she and Andrew finally start to have sex in the book, it's soon interrupted by their sons (who she blames for this overall). Once they do manage later, she's already started an affair.
• She Is All Grown Up: Sophia has blossomed into a beautiful girl at fifteen, which both her mother Janet and Eliza (her mom's friend) notice, which she accentuates by wearing more revealing clothing. Janet is worried by this, afraid she'll get into trouble with boys. She's actually a lesbian, with a girlfriend (which Janet is also upset by at first).
• Slut-Shaming: Eliza reflects about how while growing up as a teen girls called others sluts as the worst possible insult, even though all of them had sexual desires which they wanted to act on (and did). In later life, she embraces the term, no longer ashamed by her sexuality. Once she has an affair with Shar however, Eliza mentally denounces both of them as sluts at times, as does her husband Andrew after he finds out (though it has more justification then).
• Statuesque Stunner: Shar is repeatedly described as quite tall and very beautiful.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Corrine opines that so many men can't find a wife these days as they don't want to just serve as their husbands' helpmates, in disapproval. Eliza is a feminist and finds this very annoying, but refrains from comment.
• Struggling Single Mother: Eliza's mother was swamped by debt and had to care for her with her two siblings after their father died. Seeing how hard it was and having to help her as best Eliza could while still just an adolescent had affected her deeply. Eliza realized how important money was as a result, vowing she would have her own business after growing up (and succeeded).
• Surprise Pregnancy: Both of Eliza's sons were unplanned (the first one she'd gotten pregnant with before marrying their father, Andrew) and Zi Lan, a friend of hers, also had her third child in her mid forties due to this.
• Switching P.O.V.: The narrative is mostly shown from protagonist Eliza's point of view, but occasionally it's also shown from Andrew or Shar's perspectives.
• Threeway Sex: Shar often engages in these as part of her sex work, usually women with their boyfriends seeing her together. While part of them, Shar enjoys most introducing women to sexual pleasure with another woman, especially when it provides a self-realization that they like this through doing so.
• Title Drop: The change room at the pool is where Eliza has sex with Shar the first time, sparking their affair, which is the main focus of the book.
• Trauma Button: Shar had a phobia of water and especially boats after being raped on a boat, but got over this through exposure therapy, gradually taking walks closer to a marina along with a friend. At first it caused her to have panic attacks by being near there.
• Unproblematic Prostitution: Shar it turns out is a sex worker who pays for law school through doing this. There is no mention of any problems, and all her clients have never treated Shar anything but well, while she's never been arrested etc for it either. Her ex-girlfriend Leanne though believed any such idea was a terrible myth due to her being a radical feminist, with all sex work an inherently abusive enterprise, which Shar knows isn't true. The book does not though claim it's always the way Shar experiences it.

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