Review: I liked this quite a bit, but it has some issues
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 11, 2011
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.Rating: 6/10PROS:- The dynamic between Maxwell and Nick is odd and intriguing. They don't understand each other very well, and they often have trouble communicating, but they're drawn to each other nonetheless. This is a pair of characters I will not easily forget, even with as many m/m romances as I read.- Maxwell's thoughts are quite funny sometimes. When he's being interrogated by the police at one point, for example, he offers one of the cops some advice about quitting smoking. And then there's this: "Rude Cope was turning red. Tactical error, peaceful approach has failed. Got it."- Once Nick realizes that he's fallen in love with Maxwell, he doesn't try to deny it or hide it. He's simplistic and frank about his feelings, and that--paired with his basic goodness--was hard for me to resist.- This author is very good at descriptive language. When she paints a scene, it is detailed and vivid: sights, sounds, smells, impressions, etc.CONS:- The writing is hard to follow sometimes because it's disjointed. Part of the problem is that the characters' direct thoughts are not set off in any way; they're not italicized, nor do they always appear in their own paragraphs--or even their own sentences. The result is that throughout the book, the writing switches from third person to first person, and from past tense to present, with no warning. Example: "only took one hit for the big guy to realize that the monkey on his back is smaller than he is...actually, I might be smaller than the rent boy...why was this a good idea again?" (Those ellipses are in the story; I didn't insert them.)- I didn't believe in the speed at which the men become so emotionally indispensable to each other. Especially in Nick's case: he's attracted to another man for the first time ever, and he reaches a point where Maxwell is "the center of his existence" very quickly.- The ending didn't feel rushed to me so much as it felt...abrupt. The climactic battle scene is dramatic and detailed and contains a good amount of suspense. But then the book ends rather suddenly as soon as the conflict is resolved, and there are several questions/issues raised earlier in the book that are left unresolved.- Mayle often refers to her characters using descriptors rather than their names. Maxwell, for instance, is "the dirt-coated man," "the redhead," "the watcher," "the smaller man," "the vagrant," "the would-be hero," etc. Writing just seems simpler to me when authors use the characters' names to describe the action.Overall comments: Despite the cons I listed, I actually really enjoyed this. It's an unusual story in a lot of ways: the setting is near-future, so it's familiar-but-foreign; the plot is engaging; and the characters are different from the usual m/m characters. Most of the book's issues could have been resolved with some tighter editing, but overall I think this is still a pretty decent story.