Wow, this is one scary book!

SPOILERS!!!!

The amount of sick people in this book is mind-boggling! Left and right peeps get laid and as a result diagnosed with scary STD stuff while catching other extremely scary non-STD illness and die, get mental illness and abuse their kids and die, get sick and die, get abused by crowds (twice) and diagnosed with scary STD stuff (twice), get sick and almost die, get sick and die, get PTSD and OCD, held hostage and get hurt (this time with no STD as a result)... *pants...* Lemme catch my breath...

These are all different people, mind you! Except for "abused by crowds (twice), diagnosed with scary STD stuff (twice) and held hostage and get hurt (but only once, thank God!)" - that all happens to one person.

Not sure I can get over the amount of sick people in this book. This is way over the top even for my love for PTSD-ing OCD-ing souls (as a matter of fact I JUST commented on that while discussing [b:Inheritance|11776426|Inheritance (Dominion, #1)|Lissa Kasey|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1313709546s/11776426.jpg|16727965]).

Not badly written, I loved the idea in general, but - c'mon! People drop sick and dead left and right!

2.5 stars. ( )

I really had to consider what star to give this book. For likable characters, I want to give it -100 stars. But, as I have said before, it is not fair to rate a book by the lack of character strength in the protagonists.

The main character is Jez Robinson and for the most part, I really liked him. His character sees so much growth and I saw him as someone who in the end does the right thing.

Now, the character of Jamie is one F'd up fellow. There are many problems with him and we are introduced to those issues a bit at a time. His entire life is a tragedy.

In my opinion, the character of Nick is one selfish prick, but again I do understand his motivations as we are enlightened.

Some folks have complained about how most of the tropes and stereotypes found in this book makes it overflowing in complexity. (See Emma's review for that great review). I was ok with it, but there was one big problem that I had was with the HIV status. The fact that NEITHER Nick or Jamie told Jez about their statuses and how originally Nick infected Jamie really was irresponsible. While they kinda explained it, it just did not sit right with me.

So, overall, I enjoyed the book, it was well written and the plot was interesting, if not a bit over angsty. What I did not like about it, is in the end I really think that Jamie is not worth the trouble, but I suppose the point is that while one person might find a relationship one sided, another person finds their perfect match.


So, I give it a five. Not sure if I will ever read it again, as it was extremely intense and I was very depressed throughout it.


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