In Riddle’s novel, adapted from his own screenplay, a group of free-spirited friends struggles with careers and relationship choices in Los Angeles.

Thirty-one-year-old Robert Oreo runs Nordstrom’s fragrance counter at The Grove shopping mall. Classy, charming, and invariably upbeat, Robert cruises through life without much concern: “Sometimes I kiss girls, sometimes I kiss guys, and sometimes I kiss a lot of both.” Robert is forced to confront the darker side of life when his favorite client’s grandson unexpectedly dies. Robert finds himself spending more and more time with wealthy, grieving socialite Margaret, much to the dismay of his young lover, Michael, who keeps waiting for Robert to commit to a relationship. The relationships between the characters resemble quick sketches, making it hard to see where the story is going. Halfway through the book, without warning, the narrative seems to give up on Robert as its protagonist and instead begins to follow the lives of his coworkers and friends. These chapters alternate between Byron, who finds unexpected success in the adult film industry; Greta, whose previous heartbreak makes her too suspicious to enter a new relationship; and Miranda, a transgender bookstore employee who receives a sudden career opportunity. While the ups and downs of Robert and his entourage are engaging and occasionally hilarious (in one of the scenes, Byron is offered a job as a model for a new sex toy), the characters themselves remain flat, their motivations rarely clear or consistent. Robert’s peculiar, intense relationship with Margaret has the most dramatic promise, but it fizzles out without revealing anything about Robert’s more complex emotional mechanisms or connecting back to his professional life. Readers hoping to be transported by the setting or the romance will find the prose uneven and so overrun with italics and exclamation points that the text begins to resemble the ramblings of a hyperactive child (“He took the liberty and placed [the hat] on Robert’s head, and sure enough, it was the perfect fit!”).

If this story held any promise as a screenplay, it did not translate to this novelization.

In Riddle’s memoir, a young gay man comes of age in 1970s and 1980s Texas.

One day while visiting family in rural Jacksonville, Texas, the author wandered away from his uncle’s house and found a deserted cabin in the woods. Inside, the child found all the trappings of a family’s life, including a girl’s red dress. Riddle put it on and stood outside in the sun, twirling around and experiencing pure joy (“I felt great. I felt free. I felt empowered”). This was in many ways his introduction to life as a young gay man, but the joy would not last long. The author endured vicious bullying by the kids at school and attempts by his family and their church to “cure” his homosexuality. Once he reached adulthood, he frequented Houston’s gay nightclubs right as the AIDS epidemic began to spread through the gay community like wildfire. Although he avoided the disease himself, he lost several friends and a former lover. In the mid-80s, he moved to Los Angeles and was disappointed when the city did not live up to his fantasies. There is plenty of material for an in-depth memoir here, but the narrative is only barely sketched out in 40 pages. The writing style is conversational and straightforward, upfront about everything from homophobic attacks to sexual encounters. The tone keeps some of the more difficult material from seeming too maudlin. Still, this feels more like an outline of a memoir than complete story. Several gaps could be filled in, such as descriptions of when Riddle knew he was gay or how his relationship with his family fared when he fully embraced life as an out gay man. There is interesting material here, evidence of a writer with a strong voice that needs to be further developed. The message seems especially timely and needed in today’s climate.

A brief taste of an important story that should have been a whole meal.