Elaine White's Life in Books

This is my second book by this author and I'm seeing a pattern, already. There is a serious need for editing and formatting required, with mistakes throughout. Again, I'm missing the vital copyright and author bio info. The story is depressive in the way it's told, while also placing us into the head of someone who is actually depressed or seems like it. There's more telling than showing and this one differs only by coming across more biographical than the other book I read. There's also a heavy reliance on the old "broke" concept in both stories, limiting the abilities and wealth of the characters almost to an extreme.

The story is told in 1st again, but actually switches between past and present tense a few times. It also begins with the slightly disturbing and very briefly covered fact that Scott's dog has to be put to sleep, which kicks off the whole "he can't pay for it" part of the blurb.

Scott is a telemarketer and we see a lot of his work environment, since all of his friends are from work. However, I'm not so fond of his friends. Coral, for one, is a total class-A piece of work that I just can't stand. She's a bullying, interfering cow and I hated her right from the start. Debbie is a push-over; although Scott is actually called lonely and bitter at one point, I see Coral as the one most embodying those traits. Whenever Scott is bitter, it's for a reason; because of the constant bullying, neglect of his childhood.

Scott, however, I liked. He's a bit of a loner loser, like me. He's anti-social, exhibits many asexual traits, although the author doesn't go that far. He's simply someone who is ambivalent about the whole 'relationship', 'love' and 'sex' concepts. Yet, I feel this was left too wide open at the end of the book; no one ever addressed how Maliki felt about it. Scott is OCD, a control freak, homophobic at the beginning, relationship-phobic and people-phobic. The story also tackles mental health issues and suicide.

There are fade-to-black sex scenes but they're not well done and don't transition from sex to something else; it just happens, from one second to the next.

While the writing was at a good level and I was intrigued by the once again unique concept, I felt like the characters ruined it for me. I loved Scott and Maliki right from the start, and they had great chemistry together, they talked and they tried to get to know each other, despite the less than stellar circumstances. But I found his friends left something to be desired. Mostly, they treated Scott like a child. No one ever truly accepted his conditions, calling them 'quirks' and they all treated him like a difficult, petulant child who had to be coddled, mollified and handled with care. Whenever he did something even remotely emotional, he was branded as over reactive, told to calm down or someone pitched a fit, scolding him for being overly emotional. Yet when he truly needed him, at the very end of the story, they treated him like a leper and then had the cheek to be surprised that he gave them what they wanted.

For me, I enjoyed the story, but I think the friends really ruined it for me, by being far too presumptive, pushy and controlling of him. I didn't get the point of Debbie's drama except as a way to add a side story that distracted Scott for a while. I was disappointed by the sudden ending and the Epilogue which was far too brief and told us next to nothing; I wanted something to actually happened and felt like I was left with lots of unanswered questions.

Favourite Quote

"I'd been a baby and then a heathen child, and I'd had my baptism of fiery adolescence at St. Savio's. It was only on that first day in the library that I became middle aged."