Not too original and frankly prejudiced!
There is just a bit too much of other authors' styles for me to really appreciate this book.
The way the plot unfolds is too much like Liane Moriarty of Big Little Lies.
Marty and Ben emulate Charles and Sebastian of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. But it's not just the relationship. Mrs. Day tries to infuse her novel with the same atmosphere, the same mannerisms permeating Mr. Waugh's masterpiece, succeeding only in blurring the line between the modern times when her story takes place and the '30s of Brideshead Revisited. And I didn't like that because it didn't seem likely that this obsession that Martin feels for Ben could be justified in our day and age.
In other words, what worked beautifully in the '30s for Charles and Sebastian makes no sense in today's world of Martin and Ben, not even if motivated by sexual orientations.
And since that's at the heart of the book, I further disliked this book and all its negative implications about obsessions and compulsions driven by misplaced love and sexual attractions.