Review: Whoa!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 11, 2013
Lemme start with this disclaimer: Chasing Love and Rainbows is the first book of its genre that I've ever read, so feel free to stop reading right now, because it's possible I don't know what the heck I'm talking about. But, should you decide to read on, here goes . . .First of all, some people have innate storytelling ability, and TT Dorsett is clearly one of those people. She's clearly thought about these characters well beyond what she put on the page and I got the sense of their being full, three-dimensional human beings. I could tell that they lived in her brain, perhaps for a very long time, before she ever wrote a single word and that's always the beginning of really rich, layered writing in my opinion. The story centers around three sisters, Paris (the eldest, nurturer), Porsche (middle child, a bundle of unresolved issues with men and other stuff that I won't mention in case I ruin it for you) and Patrice (youngest, overachiever in a sticky situation that could threaten her promising future).Each character is written in the first person and their voices are strong and strident and powerful, but man, the subject matter and their circumstances were so grim. The book opens with a bang (literally and figuratively)and it doesn't let up from there - my impression was of three young women trying to make a future for themselves out of a tragic and chaotic past, but making decisions that are in many ways destined to make their futures just as tragic and chaotic. There were parts where I was a little lost because the sisters all began to sound exactly the same to me and without the cue at the beginning of the chapter, or the mention of the man in their life, the voice could just as easily have been any one of them. But that happened only intermittently, and I was largely able to get a clear sense of the differences between the three.And finally, don't be fooled by the title and all this talk about 'rainbows' and 'love'. This is not a fairy-tale. This is raunchy, gritty, raw, unflinching stuff and while I can't say I was left with the warm and fuzzies after reading it, I certainly admire that this author seemed not to have held anything back. She just bled every emotion onto the page - anger, pain, lust, loss - it's all there. There's always something to be said for writing that makes you feel something, even if not all of those emotions are pleasant, and for that reason, I'm giving this book 4 stars. All throughout, I was like, "Damn, she went there . . ." It'll take me awhile to recover.