Neon Roses cover art

Neon Roses

SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2024

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Neon Roses

By: Rachel Dawson
Narrated by: Ffion Aynsley
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About this listen

 A coming-of-age novel about two women falling in love during the culturally and politically turbulent 1980s.

It's 1984 in The Valleys, South Wales, and Eluned Hughes is stuck. The miners' strikes are ravaging her family and community, and her boyfriend of six years, Lloyd, is starting to bring up marriage more than she would like. She spends her days selling shoes, listening to Madonna, and trying to hold it all together. Meanwhile, Eluned's clever and precocious little sister, Mabli, thinks she knows it all. Mabli takes her older, moneyed, Thatcherite, policeman boyfriend, Graham, as the ticket out of her working class reality.

So, Eluned is left contemplating her own destiny - staying at home with a husband and a couple of kids - until one day she hears about a fundraising group called Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. Apparently they're from London, they've been raising money for the miners in her town, and they're coming to visit. She's curious, for sure. And even more so when she lays eyes on June for the first time. She has short hair, she wears leather jackets, she's moody - and Eluned's life is turned upside down.

NEON ROSES takes us on a ride of all the glorious sights and sounds of the 1980s, as Eluned attempts to carve her identity out of the protests, Pride parades, nightclubs and parties of Cardiff, London and Manchester. But this is also a story about two sisters, and the different paths they take outside of where they come from. What is the reality of reconciling family with queerness? What does a family even look like? What choice should Eluned make when her little sister rings her up out of the blue one night, confessing the truth about her relationship with Graham?

(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2023 Rachel Dawson Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance Marriage England

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Critic reviews

Neon Roses is a big-hearted story about finding your feet and following your heart, set against a beautifully-realised backdrop of 1980s British life. Tender, sexy, uplifting and fun. (SARAH WATERS)
A bold coming of age story that's joyfully queer, filthy and fun! Neon Roses transports the reader back to the passion and the protests of 1980s, in a voice that is fresh and proudly Welsh (CHLOE TIMMS)
Pitch-perfect in its vivid immersion in an Elnett-scented, fuck-Thatcher-yelling 80s sensorium, Neon Roses is bursting with the pride and DIY fashion genius with which small-town fierce femme Eluned stitches together her queer community. A hug and a snog of a book, stick it in your pocket to flag that you're here for queer love (SO MAYER)
Tender, sexy, hilarious . . . this book is a jewel in the crown of Welsh fiction
All stars
Most relevant
Outstanding book, honestly. Really sad to have finished it. Went partying last year with some dykes who squatted London in the 80s and it felt good to read some of their history. Also a really accessible book re understanding the 80s miner strikes and class solidarity between different groups (the strongest solidarity). characters and events were so well written it felt like a memoir. Will read again without a doubt

fuckin great

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What a great story. I grew up at the same sort of time, and it takes me back to the era, to the politics, to coming out as a dyke.
And now I live near Neath so the location of much of the story is pleasingly familiar too.
It’s well written, and the reader does a fab job of the different people and accents.
Highly recommend.

Great story really well read

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This is an extremely enjoyable, well-written and well produced audiobook.

Full disclosure: ‘Neon Roses’ by Rachel Dawson is a novel I’ve been looking forward to reading, *and* listening to. Reading and listening to a book are often different experiences, and I wanted to know what both were like. I can confidently say that both the book and this audiobook are excellent.

‘Neon Roses’ is a well-overdue story, not just a queer coming-of-age story but a historical novel that’s incredibly apt for today. I can’t wait to read what else Rachel Dawson has up her sleeve!

Ffion Aynsley’s reading is beautiful and nuanced, not to mention the range of accents she delivers with ease. (It’s one of my pet peeves when narrators attempt accents and the result is so bad it takes the listener out of the book.)

One of the best books of 2023.

Fantastic story, beautifully read

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I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the story behind the film ‘Pride’.

Outstanding story and narration

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I was hooked within the first couple of minutes.
It is a great storyline and is well written.

Great Listen

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