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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Everything the 1-star reviews are saying is true - this is a book about unhealthy relationships that basically consist only of sex, and it's kind of brutal. If you don't want to look at a woman struggling with an all-consuming relationship where her own autonomy and needs are shoved aside, this will not be the book for you. I have been that person, struggling to get out and to move on in healthy ways, so it was very much the book for me.
Thomas dies in a car crash, and for logistical reasons, he can't "move on" for a few months, so he's returned to his old neighbourhood in a temp body to wait it out. We learn about his history and if we have any media literacy, we immediately figure out that he is kind of a creep, what with obsessing over and trying to sleep with his lesbian bestie. He eventually meets Rachel, with whom he starts a sexual relationship, despite warnings that this will lead to "regrets". What follows is unhappiness, jealousy, and inability from both to move forward.
As I said before, the 1-star reviews complaining about the toxic nature of the central relationship are correct that it is toxic, but seem to be missing that the framing is not positive. Thomas is hurting Rachel, and whether he initially intended to, he eventually hits a point where he wants to hurt her - he makes her his whole world, and when she wants a life outside of him, he lashes out. This is not a romance novel. Thomas and Rachel are not a love story for the ages. For me, Thomas's ghostly omnipresence and stalkery behaviour raise a lot questions about consent and violation. There's also absolutely a lot of ghost sex, but I wouldn't call this particularly erotic. The sex is always a way for two lonely people to try to connect, and it almost never succeeds in creating a healthy connection (see above).
Thomas dies in a car crash, and for logistical reasons, he can't "move on" for a few months, so he's returned to his old neighbourhood in a temp body to wait it out. We learn about his history and if we have any media literacy, we immediately figure out that he is kind of a creep, what with obsessing over and trying to sleep with his lesbian bestie. He eventually meets Rachel, with whom he starts a sexual relationship, despite warnings that this will lead to "regrets". What follows is unhappiness, jealousy, and inability from both to move forward.
As I said before, the 1-star reviews complaining about the toxic nature of the central relationship are correct that it is toxic, but seem to be missing that the framing is not positive. Thomas is hurting Rachel, and whether he initially intended to, he eventually hits a point where he wants to hurt her - he makes her his whole world, and when she wants a life outside of him, he lashes out. This is not a romance novel. Thomas and Rachel are not a love story for the ages. For me, Thomas's ghostly omnipresence and stalkery behaviour raise a lot questions about consent and violation. There's also absolutely a lot of ghost sex, but I wouldn't call this particularly erotic. The sex is always a way for two lonely people to try to connect, and it almost never succeeds in creating a healthy connection (see above).
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
sad
medium-paced
The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons is a hauntingly gorgeous novel about feeling adrift in your own life and what it’s like to fall in love with a ghost.
Thomas has always been unusual. After an early brush with death, he feels marked- like a metaphorical chip on his shoulder, only it’s a very real hollowing out somewhere near his esophagus. He moves through life with reckless abandon, balancing the private beliefs that he is somewhat impervious to death and the smaller desire for death’s ultimate relief. He is unable to commit to anything fully, apart from his best friend, Therese. When he does finally die (not a spoiler, it’s on the book jacket) in a perfectly cinematic style, there is a problem. As a result, he is stuck in purgatory between the living and the dead.
When Thomas and Rachel meet, they are drawn to each other immediately, and sort of start mutually stalking one another as their eerily beautiful love story commences. It alternates between their perfectives, as well as Mark’s (Rachel’s ex-boyfriend), somewhat randomly, but in the end, it worked for me. I actually loved this novel – I wanted to underline about half of the sentences and the way she writes above desire and Brooklyn better than anything else I’ve read in a while!
Thomas has always been unusual. After an early brush with death, he feels marked- like a metaphorical chip on his shoulder, only it’s a very real hollowing out somewhere near his esophagus. He moves through life with reckless abandon, balancing the private beliefs that he is somewhat impervious to death and the smaller desire for death’s ultimate relief. He is unable to commit to anything fully, apart from his best friend, Therese. When he does finally die (not a spoiler, it’s on the book jacket) in a perfectly cinematic style, there is a problem. As a result, he is stuck in purgatory between the living and the dead.
When Thomas and Rachel meet, they are drawn to each other immediately, and sort of start mutually stalking one another as their eerily beautiful love story commences. It alternates between their perfectives, as well as Mark’s (Rachel’s ex-boyfriend), somewhat randomly, but in the end, it worked for me. I actually loved this novel – I wanted to underline about half of the sentences and the way she writes above desire and Brooklyn better than anything else I’ve read in a while!
I wanted a sweet ghost/ghost romance story. Not an asshole.l, abusive smut story.
Personal preference maybe, but super disappointed.
Personal preference maybe, but super disappointed.
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
1.5
This YA novel is shelved with fiction literature because there is no way a publisher would let something like this live in a children’s section.
The author essentially spends 85% of the book writing down her erotic fantasy. There is not a single page without a mention of sex, Masturbation, genitals, or pornography. The author was obviously hoping this book would be something of a 50 Shades phenomenon but when she was unable to craft a coherent narrative turned it into half Turn of the Screw.
I don’t know which is me troubling: that an adult author is eroticizing young adults without end or how bad the writing was.
Simple question. You have sex with a man you meet that day, wake up, and find he is missing his torso. Do you calmly get turned on and want to have sex? If yes, by all means, read this insanity. If no, forget this book forever.
This YA novel is shelved with fiction literature because there is no way a publisher would let something like this live in a children’s section.
The author essentially spends 85% of the book writing down her erotic fantasy. There is not a single page without a mention of sex, Masturbation, genitals, or pornography. The author was obviously hoping this book would be something of a 50 Shades phenomenon but when she was unable to craft a coherent narrative turned it into half Turn of the Screw.
I don’t know which is me troubling: that an adult author is eroticizing young adults without end or how bad the writing was.
Simple question. You have sex with a man you meet that day, wake up, and find he is missing his torso. Do you calmly get turned on and want to have sex? If yes, by all means, read this insanity. If no, forget this book forever.
this book was odd, but i was engaged nonetheless so that has to count for something right?
On one hand, I love how existential this is. On the other… I’m not sure how I feel.