Review: A terrifying peek inside the female mind!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2012
Karen Jerabek attempts to set the women's movement back by forty years with this short story about a shallow, immature, self-absorbed girl whose boyfriend has decided he needs a "time out" from their relationship. Here's a news flash, ladies: if your boyfriend does this to you, and remains incommunicado as this one does, your relationship has no future. He may be too gutless to tell you (particularly if he still wants to have sex with you until he's lined up a replacement), but believe me: it's over. Accept it and move on.So how does this story's protagonist deal with the news that her boyfriend needs to "find some space?" She falls to pieces. Apparently she's so vapid and co-dependent that she can't handle life on her own. She cries, complains to her equally bubble-headed girlfriend, and cries some more. It's all about Emma, her crying jags, her stomach problems, and the many ways she's *suffering* due to her boyfriend's absence. Boo-freakin'-hoo! Get some therapy already! Honestly, I don't think I've encountered a more unsympathetic female protagonist. No wonder her boyfriend wants a time out!The writing is amateurish but not entirely awful... "shift" instead of "sift," "pouring" instead of "poring..." that sort of thing. Oddly, the story is virtually devoid of descriptive details. It could be set in Anchorage or Alabama, or take place in January or July... there's simply no way to tell, and story is weaker for it. Nor do we ever learn anything of substance about any of the characters. Emma has the emotional makeup of a fifteen year-old, although apparently she is old enough to work and drink alcohol. Her job entails sitting in a cubicle but we never learn what it is that she actually does (in the story all she does there is exchange personal emails with a girlfriend). For that matter, we never learn anything about the other characters - not even the missing-in-action boyfriend, who naturally has one of those silly, only-in-women's-fiction names.Anyway, I was going to give this a couple of stars for not being entirely awful, but when I got to the ending I just about lost my lunch. I realize that this is fiction and that happy endings are de rigueur for chick lit (the defining quality of which seems to be the mention of "strappy heels"), but the ending was just ridiculous. Not only would it not go down like this in real life, but it's completely unsatisfying within the fictional universe created by the story. That's a huge no-no. So... read this if you must (at least it's short), but consider yourself forewarned. "Love Leaps" has all the intellectual heft of a styrofoam peanut. Reading it may actually lower your IQ.Note: I downloaded this short story from Smashwords, but it included an invitation to leave a review here on Amazaon, so I am doing so.