Review: Arsen will burn you so watch out
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 22, 2014
I feel like playing REM's song "Everybody Hurts" on repeat. Arsen is most definitely a broken love story. Cathy, where do I start? She has the most amazing husband, Ben, who adores her beyond the next universe but she is so numb and unhappy. I did understand the depth of her pain. I also saw what she saw in Arsen. Still, Ben had my heart the whole time through the book, he was the character I did not want to see get hurt and yet it was inevitable. Cathy was so broken that Ben seemed too perfect to be capable of understanding her. Arsen was the balm to the open wound because he knew disappointment and failure firsthand. I loved Arsen, too, because he had such a fierce passion that lit Cathy up on the inside so she could feel again. Arsen may not have been a romantic at heart but his emotions were still clear even if he didn't say anything. Cathy is so lost that she turns dark on the inside and shuts everything and everyone out. I wanted to hate her but I never did. I just hated what she did and she did a lot of it. She threw caution to the wind to free herself from oblivion but there was a price to pay. She thought she already paid a hefty price from her losses and allowed herself to spiral further out of control because she didn't feel worthy of the best that life had to offer. The best part, like with any book, is the character growth from the journey. Cathy takes some pretty big hits and I felt bad for her a little bit but not immensely because she brought it upon herself. Had she not self-destructed and hit rock bottom, she would not have comprehended how empty the aftermath would be. Cathy does get a chance at living life with more clarity and renewed understanding that she has to be an active participant in her own life to keep what's valuable to her. Even so, she didn't learn those lessons without severe casualties which she knows could have been avoided. Basically, with a big sigh, I love-hate this book. I'm still going to be processing this story for weeks to come.