Book Review: Timekeeper by Tara Sim (3 of ?)--A Clock's Sexuality

Some of my reviews do not have spoilers, but this one does.

This is the tale of Danny, the boy who fell in love with a clock. Danny finds out that the boy he is falling in love with, is actually a "clock spirit," the spirit of the clock tower in a small town.
They strike up a friendship, even though the spirit, Colton, cannot leave his tower. When he had thought the boy was a human, Danny had told him the tale of Rapunzel, a princess trapped in her own tower. After Danny learns the truth, Colton kisses him.
He later explains, "It sounded nice in the fairy tales, so I thought it would be nice to kiss you."


Danny is gay, and everyone in his life knows it and doesn't care--in a world very much like our Victorian England. (But not in this way.) I've often wondered if there were other kinds of LGBT people in this world (I would love to see how this world that is largely indifferent to gay people would feel about transgender people, for example), and I believe I have found another kind of LGBT person:

It took considerable courage for Danny to ask, "Have you ever kissed anyone before me?"
Colton thought, then shook his head. "I don't think so. I've thought about it, though. There used to be a girl down the street who was very pretty. But that was a long time ago."

I never thought I would read a story about a bisexual clock tower! That is an interesting way to get some sexual diversity in your novel!

Danny, who had anticipated this answer, took a moment to reorganize his thoughts. So you would have kissed me if I was a girl?"
"I would have kissed you if you were a girl. I would have kissed you if you were purple." 

 Oh, well excuse the hell out of me, then! :) It's a pansexual clock tower! :)
I think it is very sweet, the way Colton falls in love with Danny, apparently, because of his good heart and his gentle hands. (When repairing the clock tower itself--you had a dirty mind, didn't you?)
I hope they meet some transgender people in this series. Some of the clock spirits are female, though I don't know of any that go from one thing to another, or are sometimes one thing and sometimes another.

I hate to say this, but...it would more interesting if they talked about having sex. The cover says that the book is for "ages 14 and up," so if the seventeen-year-old character and his ageless boyfriend decided that they weren't ready yet, that would send a positive message to kids about it being okay to wait until they're ready or older. It would also let them know that people they date shouldn't pressure them to do things they don't want to.
I'm about halfway through the book, and Danny and Colton's relationship is getting serious, so it would make sense for Colton to say that he feels strange and wonderful in his body when with Danny, and that he wants to do something very special with him. And since Colton is a clock tower and wouldn't know about human sexuality (or his own sexuality, since he's not really human), Danny can explain what people in love sometimes do together. They can then decide together if they want to do anything, and if so, what to do and when. I must admit that I am a little curious to see what happens if a clock tower has a climax, since Colton did make his bells go off once by laughing too hard as he and Danny played hide and go seek.
There are already indications of Danny's desire, such as their passionate kissing, and one moment where he wanted to "wrap his body around Colton." A friend also asks Danny if Colton is "into the weird stuff" when he expresses doubts about whether they should be together.

(This part added to the draft after I read some more of the book):

I explained that I didn't think that a clock tower would know anything about human sexuality, but apparently, I was wrong! Colton, the tower spirit, is jealous because he saw another boy kissing Danny, when Danny was drunk.
"Why don't you kiss me like that?" he demands. Danny said that he "didn't know how." I'm not sure how Danny would not know how to passionately kiss someone. There didn't seem to be anything else going on between him and the other boy.
Colton thinks for a moment, then says,"I've seen it often enough," which, when combined with what happens next, makes me wonder if people are doing sexual acts outdoors all the time in this small town.
Colton and Danny start kissing passionately, falling onto the ground. Then Colton "reached his hand into Danny's trousers." (This book is ages 14 and up, according to the cover jacket. That is rather interesting.) It becomes rather vague at this point, only saying that Danny could think of nothing but Colton's lips and his hand, and, "Oh, god, his hand!"
 I assume they don't want to use the words "wrapped around his penis," in a kids' novel, but that's certainly implied. I'm not sure how this is less sexual than mentioning actual sexual parts.

This brings up so many questions: How does Colton know what Danny has in his pants, and that it brings pleasure and isn't just for peeing? He would surely see men, and occasionally women, peeing outdoors, but what did he see to educate him on other things?
What does Colton have in his own pants, being a clock tower and a spirit? If the pendulum of the tower itself are his lungs, and the central cog is his heart, then what is his you-know-what, and what would it even be useful for--making little baby clock towers? Do clock towers pee? Perhaps rain water is the clock tower's pee--but then if he had gargoyles, his pee-pee would be on his head. And if he had gutters, he would have two or more pee-pees on his feet.
I have been wondering, anyway, why he wears a very loose shirt, when he is a clock spirit and, unless his tower is very top-heavy and uneven (as if that is safe!), his shirt should be as tight as his pants--to my mind, at least. I've also been very curious as to what would happen if a spirit were wearing eyeglasses--what sort of wire contraption on the clock face would correspond to eyeglasses? And why do clock spirits have ears? Why do they have tongues, for that matter?

So Colton and Danny start to...fool around. We don't get to know what happens if a clock tower has a sexual climax, however. As he begins to manually stimulate Danny, Danny notices that the hands on the clock face are going round at an alarming rate, as days and nights go by in a blur. Danny makes him stop, and Colton has to concentrate very hard in order to bring time back into proper balance.
 So depending on your perspective, they either did have sex, or they tried to. I'm sure Danny would have stimulated Colton, after his "turn," but I'm not sure it counts if one person starts to be stimulated, but they must stop. And if this is how Colton reacts, when only doing things to Danny, how would he react, if Danny was doing things to him?
There are so many questions that make me morbidly curious, but that aren't answered in this first book. And since it came out in 2016, I assume that it will be a few years before we understand the logic of a clock tower's anatomy and sexuality--if we do at all.