The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. A man’s face is against a black, pink splashed background, staring up at something out of view, concealing the face but baring the underside of the chin and neck to the audience. Across the face, a large pink cross, resembling pain, across the length of the book. The title, in the centre of the cover, reads “Bath Haus” in large, black capitals. At the bottom of the book, also in black capitals, the author’s name “P. J. Vernon”. In between these, the phrase “A Thriller” in very small white capitals. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Rape and Sexual Assault
• Homophobia
• Murder
• Infidelity
• Violence
• Gun Violence
• Panic Attacks
• Drugs and Drug Abuse
• Alcohol and Alcoholism
• Abuse (Child, Physical, Emotional, Domestic (?))

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Summary:

Oliver Park, a young recovering addict from Indiana, finally has everything he ever wanted: sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent DC trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they’ve made a perfect life together. With everything to lose, Oliver shouldn’t be visiting Haus, a gay bathhouse. But through the entrance he goes, and it’s a line crossed. Inside, he follows a man into a private room, and it’s the final line. Whatever happens next, Nathan can never know. But then, everything goes wrong, terribly wrong, and Oliver barely escapes with his life.

He races home in full-blown terror as the hand-shaped bruise grows dark on his neck. The truth will destroy Nathan and everything they have together, so Oliver does the thing he used to do so well: he lies.

What follows is a classic runaway-train narrative, full of the exquisite escalations, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and oh-my-god twists. P. J. Vernon’s Bath Haus is a scintillating thriller with an emotional punch, perfect for readers curious for their next must-read novel.

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Notes:

For more information on content warnings please see here.

This book was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Mystery in 2021.

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Archivist Comments:

I actually know very little about this book. When I first read the summary, I thought it sounded a bit vague- that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it was just giving me very little to work with. However, I’ve seen a couple of things that would suggest going into the story relatively blind to the plot might be a good thing.

I don’t know what it means by “classic runaway-train narrative”, however I have seen a lot of people commenting on the fact that the book is actually quite a quick read, pacing wise, despite being over 300 pages in length. I’ve also seen a lot of praise directed towards Vernon’s writing in general.

Some people have complained about the lack of character development with the characters, the apparent “over the top” nature that the villain develops, and a few people said they disliked all the characters regardless of their role in the book, with particular heat directed towards the relationship dynamic between the protagonist and his boyfriend.

I found out that this novel is dual POV which I think could be interesting.

There is an age gap between the characters but I can’t really see anything that defines how big it is, but it seems to be significant enough that people keep mentioning it.

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