Figgy O'Connell

We sit together and yet not together-I haven't had a 'together' in a year. Instead I've had lots and lots of 'alones'. We sit alone together until the hour runs out, and then he stands and leaves the room before me.

The story opens on Josephine Luquet talking to a man who holds a clipboard that he doodles on, rather than taking notes. Some kind of Doctor.

As we progress with the story, we find out that she's in some kind of prison/institution, and she sees this Psychiatrist for one hour each day. He has been cured of anger, she has not.

Throughout their sessions, he convinces her to talk about a guy named Luke, who seems quite important to her. And then we start to see parts of the story from two years earlier, told in present tense.

But in most, if not all of the snippets of two years prior, Luke gets at least a few pages of POV action.
HOW is he the POV character, when we're being told HER memories of her time with him?

Don't get me wrong; I like the snippets, I liked Luke, but it just doesn't add up. Unless Luke really IS a hallucination, like the good Doctor suspects.

I guess the reason it is told in this way, looking back on the main events, is so that we know where she ends up and wonder how that happened. I am struggling to come up with a suggestion for a better way to do this, but I feel it could have been done better.

* He's like super nice.

* Doesn't have any faults (unless it's that he's a bit too attached to and possessive of Josi just a TAD too quickly, though I can understand a bit of instant bond between two uncured characters in a world full of cured ones, EVEN IF HE DOES REFUSE TO TELL HER HE'S CURED.).

* Is REALLY strong, I'm talking "traversing a brick wall with no proper hand holds, WITH A GIRL ON YOUR BACK, while smaller, more animalistic people filled with rage and hunger fall to their deaths while trying to follow you" strong. I'm talking "climbing down to the ground from another building, ONE HANDED, while holding a girl in your other arm" strong. Sure, she's a skinny girl, but come ON.

* Is really, really, really, really, supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus freaking rich. He could buy her anything she wanted, but she doesn't take handouts.


And various other bits and pieces that make him just a little unrealistic. But... I still kinda adored him.

People witness crimes and do nothing to help the victim. Apparently Josi has NEVER seen a drone (See: Cured person. See: Person with anger removed) stand up for another person who was being attacked. The author did attempt to explain why people can still be vindictive, psychotic little assholes and attack people in public, and why other people don't do anything about it, but it just felt a bit too... problem created to suit the needs of the story.

Yet somehow, when the police knock on her door, saying there were reports of a woman screaming, telling them she has night terrors doesn't clue them in to the fact that she's not cured?

Uhm... Kids don't inherit fingerprints, last I checked.

I liked Josi, I liked that she was a bit damaged, and confused, and worried about hurting other people, but sometimes really WANTED to hurt them, too. Yeah, I think we all go through those feelings too, sometimes. I mean, without the whole "do something terrible once a year" thing.

I actually really did like Josi and Luke together. I liked that they didn't fall into instalove, even if Luke was a bit heavy handed and stalkerish from the start. And I liked that they tested each other at the start, too, while each tried to suss the other out.

The idea of the story had teeny elements of Nineteen-Eighty-Four at times, and smidges of Serenity-The-Movie at others. It had a lot of potential, and while I didn't think it lived up to it entirely, and it didn't wow me, it was a serious but kinda cute story, and I did find myself grinning like a fool at one point.

The writing was sometimes really smooth, evocative, and pretty. But not all the time. Sometimes it was a little flat.