Reap the Whirlwind by Josh Aterovis

Title: Reap the Whirlwind
Author: Josh Aterovis
Publisher: PD Publishing
Buy the book: Amazon, Author

Blurb:

“Nothing can stay the same forever. We get in trouble in life when we think it can and will. Everything changes, or as King Solomon said in the Bible and The Byrds sang in the 60’s, to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. It’s not a particularly easy lesson to learn, or a fun one for that matter. I learned it the summer between high school and college, and my life would never be the same.”

Will’s life is changing so quickly he can’t keep up. He’s moving out of his parents’ home for the first time, changing careers, making new friends, and falling in love with the person he least expected. In the process, he’s also learning a lot about himself. As if he doesn’t have enough going on, his life-long best friend dies in what appears to be a drunken accident. But when Will receives a note hinting that it may not have been an accident after all, he finds that he can’t rest until he knows the truth. With the help of Killian Kendall and his friends, Will begins an amateur investigation that will result in even more death. Will thought the biggest changes were behind him, but they had only just begun.

Reap the Whirlwind blends a coming-of-age story and mystery with a powerful love story. It is the winner of two Gay Writers Guild awards.

Review:

I read Reap the Whirlwind soon after finishing the great start Bleeding Hearts. Unfortunately, all of the greatness of the first book seems left out of the second as a new narrator is introduced along with a complete new set of characters and issues. Here Killian’s distant cousin, Aidan, gets a new roommate in Will. Although Aidan is newly identified as gay, Will is struggling with his sexuality. Will’s best friend Laura helps Will to recognize that his adoration of another good friend is actually love and Will is gay. Will doesn’t handle this realization well and spirals into a deep depression and actually attempts suicide twice. Complicating matters, Joey is soon found dead and Will is convinced it wasn’t an accident.

The same formula as the first book is applied again here but without such a positive result. There is an important murder, a lot of coming of age angst and drama, and a group of friends trying to find the answer to the murder. Unfortunately the first person narrator here, Will, doesn’t have the same charm that infuses Killian. Will is by turns obtuse, selfish, immature, and all of his problems are solved for him with incredibly easy solutions. Will doesn’t actually take control and make decisions for himself, instead letting everyone direct his life for him. He also has numerous too stupid to live moments that aren’t as easily forgivable as Killian’s. Will spends the book crying and immersed in his personal drama and angst, to the point that he neglects his friends and takes his mostly easy life for granted. He becomes a difficult narrator to like and ultimately his actions are a large part in the story’s failure.

Aidan is Will’s roommate and love interest but he falls pretty flat. He is rather one dimensional with his constant love and support for Will in the face of Will’s oblivious, slavish love for a dead man and his selfish actions. The relationship that eventually builds between Will and Aidan feels false. Will seems to accept Aidan’s love because it’s always been there and why not, instead of a deep reciprocal emotion. The events surrounding their relationship from the start to marriage (a few weeks), including the ending is over the top, ridiculous, and ruins a lot of the positive qualities the story introduces. The short time frame, lack of connection, and final ending resolution just highlights what Will lacks as a character. Coupled with Aidan’s weak personality, the story produces a main couple that fails to engage or keep interest.

Furthermore there is a large cast of new characters and a few mentions and cameo’s from Killian and Asher. Here I really question bringing in a couple of young high school students to help solve a murder and Killian’s obsession steps the character back from his recent maturity of the first book. Killian’s involvement feels artificial and thrown in to connect the first book but offers very little progression for any of the previous characters. Instead they all seem to buy into the ridiculous antics of the story and ignore the obvious signs to solve the mystery. There are other elements that are used to tie up problems very easily such as the resolution to Will’s family, Will’s new art career, and his part time job. Each of these offers an easy solution to problems presented which makes the actual problems seem weak and included only for the sake of more drama and hysterics.

The actual murder mystery could have been decent but is ruined by the inclusion of a psychopath that is easy to identify as soon as they are introduced. Will’s ridiculous actions surrounding this character highlight the improbability of the situation and never let up, so the actions of the group as a whole while trying to solve the murder make Scooby-Doo’s crew look brilliant. This is really surprising given the much more subtle and deft touch employed in the previous book and part of that clumsy execution is do to the poorly executed narrator.  The ending is a shock and one I wasn’t expecting, though Will is a character I hope doesn’t appear again in the series. The attempt to make him sympathetic and brutally honest ultimately fails even as the mystery is more involved as a main part of the plot.

Where this particular story shines is in the detail orientated setting. The vivid descriptive prose shows a real strength while keeping the book easy to read and quick. Some of the characters are interesting and leap off the page while the intensity of the drama has some real poignant moments. Will’s suicide attempts are brutal and intense and the scenes are well drawn and executed. The mystery could have been really well done – just take out the obvious psycho in my opinion – so parts of it held my interest. Although this particular offering is unsuccessful, I’m looking forward to continuing with the series. Returning to the more successful narrator of Killian I think will go a long way to correcting the problems presented here. But again, this is just one person’s opinion and Reap the Whirlwind won more than one award, so take what I say with a grain of salt.