Bleed Like Me
Gannon is struggling for air in a world where she barely noticed. She is barely surviving by simply going through the motions. Until an unexpected whirl wind of a boy interjects himself into her life. Everything changes when Brooks enters the picture. For once Gannon isn’t a specter in her own life; someone sees her. Not only does Brooks see her, but he loves her. As their relationships rapidly progresses, the stakes raise, and Gannon finds herself in a place she never imagined. Now in the in the midst of a relationship based on possession, and addiction she must decide if this is what she wants.
Warning: This book contains adult content such as; drug use, violence, sex and other adult situations that may not be suitable for all readers.
To me, books with realistic undertones and high emotions are the hardest to review. If I hated the situations but the book was good, will I be able to be subjective? By the same token, if I enjoy the emotional parts of the book but it wasn’t well written, can I stand back enough to review it? This is one of those reads. This book is full of pros and cons for me, I dislike the characters for the most part, as well as, the situations in this book. On the other hand I realize that this is a decent portrayal of how some relationships really are. So, here goes…
I feel like this book is a fairly adequate representation of what could happen in an unhealthy relationship. The relationship in this book is intense to say the least.
As far as characters go I have to say that I didn’t really like any of them in this book, with the exception of Gannon’s boss. He to me, is the only one who had his head on straight. Gannon is really detached from the readers, however, this is probably intentional seeing as she is detached from everything. I found Gannon’s problems to have some merit, however, I found most of them to be blown out of proportion. Though I know teenagers are notorious for this, I thought her reactions were too dramatic in relation to the situations in her life. To me she was whiney and selfish. She also has a very prominent addictive personality trait to go along with her depressive traits. These traits together made her make less than wise decisions. I personally feel as though she had a mental disorder, and seeing as I work in mental health, I feel like I can recognize it when I see it. If her parents would have only gotten her help sooner. On the other hand, we have Brooks, who I can also say, has a mental disorder. He seems manic-depressive to me. I don’t particularly like him either. I found him to be possessive, controlling, and moody. To top it all off he is an enabler.
Together these two bring out the absolute worst in each other. They feed into each other’s mental illnesses and addictions, which is like a hurricane colliding with a monsoon. I don’t know if “love” is a good term for them. Rather, they are addicted and obsessed with each other. Their relationship develops so quickly Gannon doesn’t even know what’s happened until it’s too late and she has completely isolated herself.
The writing in this book is pretty good. It kept me interested. I read it in one sitting in a matter of hours. I didn’t like how detached I felt from the characters. I theorize that Desir did this on purpose, but I can’t swear to it. Furthermore, I felt like the ending was like running at full speed into a brick wall. It literally came out of nowhere. Granted, it wasn’t the ending I was expecting, but it also didn’t feel like if flowed well with the rest of the story. BAM! ENDING! What just happened? Also, there was not really a conflict resolution which once again I realize was most likely on purpose. Despite that it is still aggravating, especially in a stand-alone novel. This made me question what exactly the point of the novel was. Finally, the introduction of superfluous characters. My main example is the librarian. She was completely inconsequential in my opinion. Overall, since my cons out-weigh my pros, I would have to give this book three out of five stars.
