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Bashed (2009)

by Rick R. Reed(Favorite Author)

4.19 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

MLR Press

review 1: Donald and Mark leave the leather bar after a night of fun and drinking, walking wrapped in each other's arms, kissing and laughing as the story opens. The area they are in is painted as a gay friendly area, but shadows lurk in dark corners. And when Donald and Mark are attacked in one of those dark corners just as they reach their car, one life ends and four are irrevocably changed forever. When Donald wakes up in the hospital sore, battered and with slight amnesia his sister has to tell him his lover is dead. But Mark was just there with him, standing next to his hospital bed. And as the story progresses, Donald continues to see Mark, hear him, smell him all around him. Is he being haunted? Losing his mind? Or has his recently deceased lover become his guardian angel? Si... morexteen year old Justin is having a hard time dealing with peer pressure and his family drama. His best friend Ronny, is a violent homophobe, his mother is emotionally and pretty much physically unavailable, and while he has a good relationship with his uncle Walter, the fact that the man is gay is difficult for Justin to deal with at times. All of these people interact and weave their way through each other's lives on a daily basis, not exactly realizing who each one of them truly are. Donald is slowly getting back his memory and putting faces to the horrible realizations of what happened that night, with Mark's help. But when all the puzzle pieces are in place, Donald faces the very real danger of joining his dead boyfriend. This was a dark and graphically violent novel, that warning must be given. But the writing and the way the story was conveyed were kind of brilliant. There are multiple points of view and some sliding around from one chapter to the next, but there is no confusion. Whether you're in the mind of the grieving Donald while he tries to go on with his life, remember all the fine details of the night he'd rather forget and try to figure out if he's going out of his mind seeing Mark while knowing Mark is actually dead. Or young Justin who is so impressionable that he makes poor decisions following his friends lead and how the choices he has made morph themselves into making him physically sick at times. What is frightening as hell about this novel is the reality of it. I don't even want to think about how many times I've seen similar stories on the news, or read them online. What was interesting for me was to see the lasting effects this particular case, even if it is fiction, had on Donald as well as Justin. How the violence of that night bleed over into their lives in the aftermath. The characters were three dimensional and tragically flawed coupled with a gripping storyline that makes this book a must read.
review 2: A really well told story which shows how violence affects everybody involved - including the perpetrators. I have never come across a book which so thoroughly describes the point of view of the agressor without making them sound like the victim. That`s not to say that the victims point of view is neglected with even ghostly apparitions/delusions forming part of the tale. The story also touches on how our lives connect and getting over the death of a loved one. My only criticism is the tag line -I'm not sure that I would describe it as "A love story" but that is only a minor point. In short I would recommend the book to anyone. I listened to the audiobook version and I thought that it was well narrated and easy to listen to. less

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