Charlee Fam

[Cross-posted to Knite Writes]

Plot

A young woman named Aubrey returns to her hometown for the funeral of her former best friend, Rachel, who committed suicide—and with whom she had a falling out in her final years of high school. Aubrey, a burgeoning alcoholic, who is obviously depressed, given the fact that she regularly writes “potential” suicide notes, is reluctant to attend Rachel’s funeral and the odd remembrance party being put on by some of her former schoolmates. In flashbacks, the reason for her personal issues and the falling out with Rachel is revealed.

Rachel had always been a selfish girl who regularly insulted Aubrey and their other friends and pressured them into doing things they didn’t really want to do. Smoking. Drinking. Partying. Etc. Aubrey was fed up with Rachel long before their actual falling out, but she kept Rachel on as her friend because they’d been together since childhood.

Then, one fateful night, Rachel dragged an upset Aubrey to the biggest teen party of the year. Aubrey had recently had a major argument with her longtime boyfriend, Adam, over sex, and Rachel insisted that the party would help cheer her up. Unfortunately for Aubrey, Rachel also convinced her to let a couple of boys take them home, and in a drunken stupor, Aubrey was raped by one of the boys.

It turns out that the boy in question was the boy Rachel had been pining for, and Rachel, being a terrible person, got angry with Aubrey over “having sex” with the boy she wanted. So, in revenge, Rachel had sex with Adam—after telling him that Aubrey slept with the other boy.

Aubrey, traumatized twice over by what happened to her, broke off basically every relationship she had—with Rachel, Adam, and her family—and went off to college depressed, where she ended up the alcoholic of the present.

When the funeral “after party” rolls around, an intoxicated and furious Aubrey crashes it and makes a humiliating display of drunkenness. After getting kicked out, she sits in her car, drunk, by the train tracks; Adam finds her and takes her to the hospital because she has consumed far too much alcohol and he fears she might jump in front of a train.

Aubrey wakes up in the hospital and is assigned a therapist who has her gradually talk through her issues, including the rape. While Aubrey does appear to get somewhat better emotionally by speaking with the therapist, her point of view reveals that she doesn’t really buy into the therapy, which she proves by confronting her rapist (who doesn’t even remember her) in a bar and assaulting him. At the end, Aubrey heads away from home again, still in the company of the voicemail Rachel left her before the suicide.

The end.

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My Take

I thought this was an “okay” book, but it had a quite few issues that hampered my enjoyment of it.

Let’s start with the plot.

I understand that this is supposed to be an emotional novel that really explores the protagonist’s psyche, but even so, I found the narrative too drawn out and repetitive. The actual plot of the story is quite short, but the execution consists of a bunch of flashbacks interwoven with brief snippets of Aubrey’s sessions with a therapist.

I thought a great deal of Aubrey’s conversations with the therapist didn’t really advance anything, characterization-wise or plot-wise. And the flashbacks, which told the main story, could have been condensed, as they often spent a lot of time discussing some of the same issues as the therapy sessions (sometimes, they even included similar, almost identical thoughts, which became kind of annoying after a while).

Another issue I had with the story was the issues—the social issues discussed throughout the book. Almost all of them, from teen drinking to rape and slut shaming, were left unresolved in the sense that a definitive answer on the story’s viewpoint was never established from Aubrey’s perspective.

The therapist, clearly, is supposed to be the logical and moral compass of the story, who spends some time explaining the nature of the social issues in question and how Aubrey should feel about them—but Aubrey never seems to buy into any of it. And by the end of the book, I don’t really get the sense that Aubrey has developed at all, as her thoughts about the issues appear to remain fairly consistent throughout. This sort of “muddled” handling of such sensitive issues bothered me a bit—largely because this was a first person novel told from Aubrey’s perspective, and her thoughts on these issues were self-destructive and fairly damaging. The fact that her thoughts and feelings were never resolved in any real way made me a little uncomfortable.

My next problem with this book was the writing style. I’ve mentioned it was often repetitive, and that was the biggest problem. Reading incredibly similar thoughts (down the word choices) over and over irritated me a bit. Plus, I found the actual style of the prose to be a bit juvenile given the age of the protagonist.

I suppose the author might have been going for a sort of “delayed development” thing—showing that Aubrey hadn’t really matured past her teenage years due to her trauma—but it didn’t really come across that well. The descriptions weren’t that interesting. The dialogue wasn’t that compelling. The characterizations were a bit flat because of how the narrative handled conversations between Aubrey and others. It just didn’t work well for me, the style.

Overall, I found this book a bit lackluster. The ideas were there, sure, and the flashback-structure was well thought out, but the execution left a lot to be desired. The prose fell flat. The thematic issues weren’t resolved. The skimpy plot was too padded. It wasn’t a terrible book, by any means, but it was nothing to write home about.

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Is It Worth Reading?

It’s not something I’d pick up again if I had other books on my to-read list (and I always do). I was left frequently bored by the book’s repetitive nature and drawn-out storyline. So I’d say no unless you’re super interested in the type of plot described above.

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Rating

2.5/5

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... // Disclaimer

I received a free paperback copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review… (más)

While this is a depressing story, I enjoyed it immensely. I thought all of the characters were very well written even though most of them were quite unlikeable. I enjoyed the way the novel was told as well, the funeral, growing up, and the breakdown. The characters all lead such a sad existence in this story, but it is a compelling read anyway. I found myself turning the pages from page one. The story also has a great ending. Not everything is wrapped up all nice and neat, similar to real life. This novel also touches on some very sensitive issues: rape, suicide, mental illness, and the woes of relationships. This story would be a great discussion starter for book clubs because of it's many issues. I will most certainly be suggesting this one to customers who like a darker, more realistic story.… (más)

This debut novel holds promise for the writer. While it took a while for me to get into the story, once I did, I just wanted to know more.
The story begins with a prologue that I had forgotten about by the time the events were fleshed out later in the book. The first chapter is Aubrey waking in the hospital. The second chapter jumps back to five days earlier. We soon learn that her childhood friend, Rachel has committed suicide and Aubrey does not want to go to the funeral. Subsequent chapters begin to jump between time periods in Aubrey's life and it was confusing at first.
Also, I found myself distracted by brand names and store names in the first quarter of the book.
Each chapter is assigned a date, ranging from 1997 to 2014. Aubrey was in second grade in 1997, the first year of high school in 2005, and the last year of high school in 2009. The author states that Aubrey and her best friend Rachel were in second grade together with Eric though later, Eric had graduated two years before the girls. Also, Aubrey was 14 in 2005 and 17 in 2009. Also, I kept wondering two things: what happened to end the girls' friendship and how/why did Rachel commit suicide.
Those are just a few of the things that distracted me from the story.

However, once the story got going, I got hooked. Learning about the girls' friendship and about Aubrey's high school boyfriend, Adam, drew me in. What happened to kill the friendship? What happened with Adam?

The book is also split into two parts. Part one is all about Aubrey's unwillingness to go to the funeral and about her past. Part two is about after she gets out of the hospital. The second part seems so short in comparison to the first, that I almost wanted more of it.

A few highlights for me:
Self medicating with ONE cigarette per day, Xanax as needed, and Jack Daniels whenever.
Adam - a very intriguing character
Rachel - loved hating her through most of the book
The end - LOVED the end of the book.… (más)