Missing Him : A real love story is a book by L. Penn, which follows the story of a troubled young woman, Emery Pearson. She finds herself in prison, speaking to a therapist, Susan James, but the reader doesn't find out until the very end of the book why she is behind bars. Although this is an interesting plot structure, it left me somewhat at a loss, as I couldn't decide whether to feel sorry for Emery or to regard her with contempt. She seems like an intelligent woman, helping to set up a reading and writing club within the prison, but she is frequently beaten up by the other inmates, which is usually a sign of some horrible crime that the prisoner is being "punished" for. Her dealings with her therapist at first show her to be a manipulative, uncooperative patient, which also doesn't help to give us a good first impression of her.
Inserted into the prison-life stories and scenes with the therapist are many flashbacks to her younger self, starting out with a scene when she is being beaten up by two boys in the school toilets and her soon-to-be hero, Jack Charles, walks in and saves her. The pair end up getting together in a passionate but complicated relationship. Their love is strong but very physical, with both of them punching and manhandling each other as a regular part of foreplay. The highly detailed sex scenes, particularly in the first half of the book, left me frequently feeling ill-at-ease, as they are very detailed and often violent. The pair are undoubtedly in love, but where will this relationship lead them both?
There are a lot of spelling mistakes and sometimes missing words, which annoyed me and made me want to grab my red pen to correct them - I can't help it, I'm a teacher ! Hopefully these will be edited out in upcoming editions. (Update : The author has assured me that the latest version is error free !) The end of the book does provide you with the answers you have been searching for all along to finally understand Emery's plight, but it was hard work getting there - maybe this is supposed to give you an insight into Emery's character though !
star rating : 3.5/5
- Paperback: 318 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (20 Feb. 2018)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1985748770
- ISBN-13: 978-1985748774
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 2 x 21.6 cm
Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.
Not great about the spelling mistakes etc
ReplyDelete'There are a lot of spelling mistakes and sometimes missing words' would irritate and disappoint me, too. Shame, as it sounds like an interesting - albeit different - sort of read.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan and Ashleigh,
ReplyDeleteSorry, but as the author of 'Missing' I felt need to reply. In my second edit, there are no spelling mistakes nor were there ever any. My grammar may have been 'different' as a Northern gal like Emery, and also as an ex teacher-of-trades myself, I wouldn't publish something that was so error-ridden. My work isn't 'Jane Austin prose' but 'Emery's' prose: Stark and hard-hitting, so if you want to give it a try I urge you to as you won't be disappointed in this truly original tale. L Penn.
Hope the next edit corrected all the typos. I often get the preview copies of books for reviewing, and tend to notice typos as well. I'm not a big fan of books with explicit and violent sex scenes, so probably it's not right for me.
ReplyDelete