Title: The Sculptor
Author: Scott McCloud
Rating: 2.5 stars
So this is the last pre-written review that I have left from GoodReads. I read this book a couple of months ago for another readathon (Tome Topple) and, while enjoyed it while reading it, I wish I had devoted my time to a different novel because I really enjoyed the art, and the story does touch on some very difficult subjects like failure and the desire to excel at what you do, losing loved ones, and mental health. However, this book is just overflowing with poorly done tropes.
To start, the who plot of the story is so over used and there really isn’t anything new being added to it. A guy who has nothing to lose gives up his life in exchange for an ability or gift and on the way to his last day on earth meets the girl of his dreams. The girl is question is Meg, who is pretty much the definition of manic pixie dream girl. The first time he sees her she is literally dressed like an angel. The whole situation is kind of cute, but the pedestal she is put on from the beginning of the story to the end is so ridiculous that she doesn’t even seem like a real person. And of course, even her flaws make her seem more perfect.
Back to the main character, David. From the beginning you’re made to feel bad for David, and honestly at first I did. But as the story goes on more and more things keep getting added to his story that by the end it no longer felt genuine and I no longer cared. Between his money problems, being homeless, his career going down the tubes, and the deaths or ALL his family, it felt so overly dramatic that I couldn’t really connect with him as a character. Early in the story David willingly decided to trade his life for the ability to create anything in any medium with his bare hands, and is told he only has 200 days left to live and create. When he finally meets Meg, which doesn’t take long, he’s instantly smitten and tries to make a move. She brushes him off but it doesn’t take long for them to fall for each other. From start to finish the relationship doesn’t feel realistic. There is a mutual “we can fix each other” vibe underlying much of the plot with them. At some point David find out that Meg has an undisclosed mental health issue (probably depression) that causes her to push people away and get super down on herself, but it is forgotten almost as quickly as it is mentioned, and the story rolls on and on, simply spiraling around their relationship, as well as some minor and half forgotten side plot lines until the ending. Also at some point in there David tells Meg he only has less than 200 days left to live and she’s super okay with how it all went down, not at all questioning his story or sanity.
I think that this story could have worked if more time was spent developing literally ANY plot points outside of their relationships. This is one of the reasons that I hate books with romance plots in them. The main plot of the book gets derailed by the romance until that becomes the major plot and then some BS is whipped up at the end to try and make up for the fact that nothing has been happening for the past few hundred pages. If some of the deeper topics from the beginning (the failure, lose, mental health bits) had been delved into deeper over the whole story it would have been much more interesting. Another problem that held the story back was the side characters. All of the side characters were developed just enough to serve the plot devices of the story. Other than that they have no personality and no point to the story. They might as well not even be there. They are either made to be beneficial to David’s will or completely antagonistic. In general, I get that this is the point of writing in side characters, but it shouldn’t be that half-hearted and transparent.
The ending of the book was actually a surprise to me. I thought that there was going to be some magical solution to the fact that David’s days were quickly dwindling and him and Meg would live happily ever after. I have mixed feelings about what happened. On the one hand I loved that McCloud took the chance of having a bittersweet and dark ending. I did not like that he killed off one character to drive the actions of the other, or the fact that it felt like a quick clean ending to an otherwise messy story. Despite that, I appreciate any author taking a chance on ending their story on a bittersweet note. It’s risky in any book.
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