I'm such a huge fan of Leah Raeder. She writes so beautifully and her descriptions are always so spot on. From the first page of this book, I was hooked.
The other thing I love about Raeder's books is that she isn't afraid to write unlikeable girls. Her characters are never sweet people. They are gritty and complicated and real. Never more so than in this book.
Yet there is real romance here. In between hurting each other (and themselves) Vada and Ellis have a touching and often heartbreaking love for one another. Ellis knows what it is and is frustrated that Vada won't commit to her wholly and completely.
The book explores some interesting ideas about bisexuality and gender as a spectrum rather than an either/or, something I haven't seen presented so clearly or as well in any other book. It also explores camming and the connections between viewers and the one on camera.
This is a book to savor. You want to read it slowly so you can notice the beauty of the language, but you want to read it fast so you can find out what happens next.
If you don't believe me, here's the blurb...
Vada Bergen is broke, the black sheep of her family, and moving a thousand miles away from home for grad school, but she’s got the two things she loves most: her art and her best friend—and sometimes more—Ellis Carraway. Ellis and Vada have a friendship so consuming it’s hard to tell where one girl ends and the other begins. It’s intense. It’s a little codependent. And nothing can tear them apart.
Until an accident on an icy winter road changes everything.
Vada is left deeply scarred, both emotionally and physically. Her once-promising art career is cut short. And Ellis pulls away, unwilling to talk about that night. Everything Vada loved is gone.
She’s got nothing left to lose.
So when she meets some smooth-talking entrepreneurs who offer to set her up as a cam girl, she can’t say no. All Vada has to do is spend a couple hours each night stripping on webcam, and the “tips” come pouring in.
It’s just a kinky escape from reality until a client gets serious. “Blue” is mysterious, alluring, and more interested in Vada’s life than her body. Online, they chat intimately. Blue helps her heal. And he pays well, but he wants her all to himself. No more cam shows. It’s an easy decision: she’s starting to fall for him. But the steamier it gets, the more she craves the real man behind the keyboard. So Vada pops the question:
Can we meet IRL?
Blue agrees, on one condition. A condition that brings back a ghost from her past. Now Vada must confront the devastating secrets she's been running from—those of others, and those she's been keeping from herself...
I'm all for unlikable characters (as long as they're not unredeemable). Of course, sometimes it seems like the bar is set a little lower for girls to be unlikable. It sounds like an interesting read, though.
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