This month’s Spotlight read is Colin O’Sullivan’s fifth novel, Marshmallows. A mysterious three-act noir that subverts traditionally jubilant depictions of Christmas Eve, O’Sullivan’s play masked as a novel imbues the holiday season with an element of thriller, fitting as a perfect post-Halloween read on the lead up to the festive season.
Centring around boyfriends Ben and David as they journey to David’s parents’ house in the countryside for a Christmas Eve dinner, Marshmallows offers an insight into the minds of each of the main characters: the mysterious and crafty Ben whose orphan past remains in the shadows, cheery and social undergrad David who is hiding the more recent events of what happened at last night’s Christmas party, as well as David’s parents: Charles, the famous stage actor and his wife Lydia. As Ben brings the audience closer to his past, Charles is losing grip of his own. Through an exploration and eventual evocation of memory through theatrics, Beckett and Shakespeare references, and marshmallows themselves, Marshmallows creates a gripping and addictive build-up as Ben meticulously plans his revenge. Unlike Waiting for Godot, which is referenced throughout the play, something actually does happen in the novel’s superb and climactic third act, thrusting side characters into centre stage and casting a mirror up to the human condition.
Marshmallows is an exciting and refreshing read with theatrical elements which paint a vivid picture in the mind that is hard to forget quickly.
Marshmallows is available for purchase here.
Betimes Books 
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