Review: How to Survive
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2012
So. Here we are. There was pain and beauty, suffering and redemption, I can honestly say there was probably a little thing for everyone in this story.Language-wise I am in awe, and that, my friends, happens only very seldom. All verbs were correct, both in usage and in tense (horrifyingly uncommon, these days), and the descriptor words used were far-reaching, mesmerizing--controlling me, the reader. Fabulous. A lot of precision has gone into the choice of words here, and for me, that is such a bonus. I feel appreciated, as a reader, when my author goes the extra mile to deliver a fine, fine product. So thank you for that, too, Harper Fox. I'll be trawling your list of books soon.What about this story, then? Well, it was a little bit incredible, then it became more credible, and then it went right back into ( a good kind of) incredible again. I had all the feels when reading, and then it heaped some quite impossible feels on top of the others, and my mind was officially blown about half-way in. And then it kept on GIVING. Good words, fabulous settings, cool and hot sex, angry and sad and happy and snot-sobbing-wailing-sadness... Sorry, yes, I'm in a muddle here, all the feels, as you can see.The narrative jumps back and forth in the most delicious way, and the action scenes are interspersed with deep thoughts and philosophical yearnings. Quite scholarly, without ever getting pompous. (Well, Jason was probably quite the pompous British university professor, but he's not around much, right?)This is a study of losing your love, and finding life again. I especially appreciated Daniel's growth as an independent person without the support of Jason. He was quite submissive to Jason, and it grated on me in the beginning, how he couldn't even put down a glass on a table without thinking about whether it would be staining something valuable or not. Jason was a hell of a micro-manager, I think.So, some excerpts, as per my usual MO:"Rayne kissed me. It was the gentlest of gestures, only the brush of his lips to my brow. But it held me down, kept me warm, in a time-slip whirlwind threatening to demolish the frail reality I'd constructed..."See what I mean with wording? It just paints such a vivid picture. Some may say there are too many words here. I say there are *exactly* as many words as it takes.Or how about:"I burst out laughing, forgetting for whole seconds that my world had crashed and burned."We've all been there, when sorrow is all you have, and suddenly you realize you are laughing again for the first time. It gets cut short by a wail and a painful blocking of your lungs. This is visceral writing, it goes straight to my insides.Brilliant stuff, this.So, all in all a very pleasurable read. I was taken by the hand and led from A all the way to Z without missing a single beat. That's quite a feat, in my book. Add to that the fact that there is also a backstory that runs all the way without breaking down, and I'd say it's a very good and rounded story. Romance? Thriller? Detective story?You decide. For me, M/M Romance just seems like a straight-jacket on this one, it is so much more. So much.I think I'll go with all of the above, and then some.***I was NOT asked to read this book by anyone, I paid for it with my own money, as I do for all the books I read, all the music I listen to and the movies I watch.