Tattoos & Teacups
23-year-old tattooed percussionist and 32-year-old Literature teacher.
I enjoyed the book pretty much. At the end.
To be honest, I thought I would DNF this book. The first half is very inconstant and I couldn’t feel that pull to go on with the characters and their lives. It was nice but not mesmerizing.
And the sense of time is very wrong. It gives the impression of isolated episodes with several months in between, so I had a feeling I was reading a long-term relationship instead of a causal one that lasts only a little time. I think that’s because they were very new to each other one second and in the next one they were talking like if they knew each other for ages, but not that kind of way in which you feel them as soul mates but like actual years. For instance, when Chris wants to meet Rob’s daughter and Rob feels guilty because he hasn’t talked about Chris to his ex. It felt like if he had spent lots of Sundays with his daughter while being with Chris. But then I was surprised when Chris asks Rob to go with him to a tattoo shop and the tattoo artist asks them how long they have been together and they answer “A month”. That really shocked me, it was the relativity theory at its best.
There is a confusion of terms in one moment of the book. They are talking about a character having been treated of cancer only with surgery and chemotherapy, and two pages later the same character says he has been operated on and then only had radiotherapy. It’s not the same thing, and in the way it was told, it seemed that person only received one kind of therapy and not both. Very obvious mistake.
I want to add I don't get why some supporting characters are in the book, they come into scene once and suddenly they magically disappear. I couldn't understand the point of them getting into the story to begin with.
I also missed some Chris's POV.
But then the second half came. And it was sooooo gooood! It improved a lot and I couldn’t quit. I was off-guard when it happened but after a certain point their relationship was more mature and more charming. It was like reading a different book altogether, and it was for the best. I prefer a book going from lowest to highest than the opposite but I still can't deny the first pages were difficult to endure. Apart from that there is a turn I liked a lot and make some kind of difference from the typical love story. Sometimes there are more important things than love, like maturity and dreams, and you have to try them instead of heading for the one we expect. It was very real and honest, a good point.
Oh, and please, very few times I like a kid that much but here it was just a “momento Nescafé”.
“Uncle Chris is gay,” Cassie tells the realtor with relish.
“Really,” Jessica says, a polite but amused expression plastered on her face.
“Cassie, shut up,” Chloe whispers furiously from behind us, but she is ignored.
“Mhmm,” Cassie says. “That means he doesn’t like girls. He likes boys instead. My mommy says that’s okay, though. You can like whoever you want to like.”
“Is that so”.
“Yes. So when I grow up, I’m going to marry a penguin.”
So, yes, I was worth it. Not mind-blowing, but still.
