Sunday 4 November 2012

No Hope for Gomez!




No Hope for Gomez! by Graham Parke
188 Pages
Published by Outskirts Press, January 2010



Description:

It's the age-old tale:
Boy meets girl. 
Boy stalks girl. 
Girl already has a stalker. 
Boy becomes her stalker-stalker.
We've seen it all before, many times, but this time it's different. If only slightly.
When Gomez Porter becomes a test subject in an experimental drug trial, he is asked to keep track of any strange experiences through a blog. What Gomez isn't ready for, is so many of his experiences suddenly seeming strange; the antiques dealer trying to buy his old tax papers, the phone-sex salesman who hounds him day and night, the super sexy research assistant who falls for him but is unable to express herself in terms outside the realm of science.
But when one of the trial participants turns up dead and another goes missing, Gomez begins to fear for his life. No longer sure who he can trust and which of his experiences are real and which merely drug induced delusions, he decides it's time to go underground and work out a devious plan.
Now, years later, his blogs have been recovered from a defunct server. For the first time we can find out firsthand what happened to Gomez as he takes us on a wild ride of discovery. - From Amazon.ca



My Review:
Rating: 3/5
*Note* This book was sent to me to review honestly from the author.


This book is described as being "humourous" which is a genre I haven't specifically tried before. I was a bit nervous, because my sense of humour is a bit dark (e.g. I find Stephen King to be hilarious). The type of humour in this book is quirky - and luckily that is something I liked!

Gomez works at an antique store and becomes a participant in a drug trial for some extra cash. During the trial, someone dies and the book takes on a semi-mysterious edge. In addition, he falls in love with his doctor and starts the stalking of the doctor's stalker.

I thought Gomez' character was really quirky. Actually, all of the characters were a little bit quirky. Gomez makes some rational and irrational decisions, which makes him unpredictable but also difficult to connect with. Once I gave up trying to connect with Gomez, I got more enjoyment out of the story. The characters are the strongest aspects of the book because they are just so weird, but also realistic. His neighbour keeps trying to paw off manuscripts to Gomez to read and critique, but they are terrible. How do you step around a person like that, one that bombards you at the elevator and drills holes in your floor (his ceiling)? These characters are so wacky that you can't help but laugh.

The plot was a bit slow to start and then suddenly everything happened in the last 50 or so pages. So it took me awhile to get into because the beginning was just off the wall quirkiness without any sort of explanation or reason. The writing was Gomez' voice (the book is his blog entries), so normal descriptions of things had a tinge of strangeness to them.


I think this story would make for a funny skit on something like Saturday Night Live because the characters are so impressionable. I thought it was an enjoyable book, but I did find it difficult to connect with Gomez and I'm not sure if this is a genre I would normally enjoy. But if you are looking for a light, quirky read then I think this is a good one to pick up!

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