(W)hole

(Review originally published at Red Adept Reviews.)

I purchased (W)hole, by Ruth Madison, after seeing a discussion about disabled heroes on an Amazon discussion board.

Overall: 2 ?? stars

Plot/Storyline: 3 ?? stars

I knew going in, based on the description, that the heroine is what is called a “devotee,” meaning she has a specific attraction to men who are wheelchair bound or physically impaired in some way. While I don't share this particular fascination, I don't think I need to share it in order to enjoy the book. I also enjoy a romance that is more Beauty and The Beast (with the Beast being anyone society labels different and fears without reason) than Cinderella. Love is predicated on more than prom king or queen looks and attraction that is about more than the bluest eye. So, while I realized going in that I was not the ideal reader, I felt I'd be open to the story.

The plot was fine, really, but the execution felt a little flat. The devotee angle didn't bother me, and it added an extra dimension. However, there were a couple uncomfortable moments. For instance, Elizabeth and Stewart go on a date, and she touched her foot to his foot, knowing he was unaware that she is touching him, and seeming to be excited by it. I can't say that I was comfortable with this, because I think a person has the right to know if you're making physical contact.

The other uncomfortable moment was more of a mixed bag for me. She realizes that she doesn't regret his accident, doesn't wish it didn't happen, because it's what makes him attractive to her. I understand that logically - the heart (and choice parts) wants what the heart (and choice other parts) wants, but it was still one of the few moments that stopped me short. I'm not taking anything away from the rating for his, however, because I think it's an honest feeling this character had, and a brave thing to write.

I acknowledge that, while I think I'm a good audience for this, I'm not the perfect reader, and that this might be an important book for other people to read and know that they're not alone. I know that at some point, past the half-way mark, I began to skim more, because my interest wasn't being sustained.

When I think of plot and storyline, I think of how I would summarize the story for someone who hadn't read it. When I do that with (W)hole, I think it sounds like an interesting story, and so the rest falls to the other categories.

Characters: 2 ?? stars

I think that the author does a pretty good job explaining Elizabeth to the reader. I like her, I get how she swoons over Long John Silver the way some of us swoon over ... (Michelle pauses to consider the name she will type. It is not an unpleasant way to spend some time) ...Tim McGraw in a cowboy hat and a pair of tight jeans, I want her to be happy. However, when I say that I like her, it's a mild “like,” with a period at the end, not an exclamation point. She is a good person, and so I'm on her side. I don't passionately root for her though, and I don't passionately root for the hero either - although I like him too. I should care about both of them a lot - she's had to keep her true self a secret, he's obviously suffered adversity.

I think I know them and understand them, but I don't feel for them. I didn't feel invested in their relationship. I read the end and thought, “Well, that's good.” Because, you know, they're good people.

I understood that she was quite attracted to him, because the author wrote that it was so, but I didn't feel chemistry between the characters. We're told a number of times, that she likes him for more than his paraplegia, but I never felt a true draw between them, not even when he begins to accept her - I'll call it a fetish, since the author does so a number of times. He's the first guy in a wheelchair she got close to, the first man she got close to, and she's the first young woman to show interest since his accident.

Elizabeth is deceptive about her interest in Stewart's disability, but I have to say I see it as an understandable thing, and most people wouldn't have the courage to reveal that, particularly not a shy girl in her first romance.

I don't fault him his reaction either. Perhaps this is where these characters seemed most real for me.

Writing Style: 2 stars

This is the great stumbling block for me. When I question why I didn't care more, why I wasn't invested, it all comes back to the language not moving me, the words not drawing me closer to the characters. I'd read a sentence here and there and feel something, the seed of interest or enthusiasm, but none of it germinated. The language felt repetitious.

For example: “She looked at him with such trusting eyes, so clear and unclouded, with a trust that he ke knew he couldn't live up to.”

While I didn't feel the passion, I felt the passion in the author. This is clearly a very important theme for her. And perhaps that's one of the problems - I felt like she was so busy sending out a beacon to other devotees, so busy trying to make the reader understand, that it felt a bit like an Afterschool Special, if it could be rated PG 13.

Editing/Formatting: 2 1/4 stars

Formatting was off, with paragraphs aligning wrong, correcting, and then repeating the pattern. Punctuation, particularly concerning dialogue, was also problematic. Assorted other errors. While none of the issues were major, they were ubiquitous. Any way that I look at this, I have to label it beneath professional standards, even though the issues would be easily remedied, because it was constantly undermining my experience. (If I had to guess on the wonky formatting, single line paragraphs seemed to set it off, making everything justify too far to the right for a number of paragraphs, and then re-align.)