Prisoner 374215

A quick read that actually managed to keep me so engaged while reading it that I didn't stop to make passive aggressive, ranting status updates about the bits which annoyed me. These days, that's a miracle unto itself and why I'm giving it three stars instead of two despite ultimately feeling more like I enjoyed the first half and held on for the end just to see what happened rather than because I was invested in the characters or overall story.

I expected something far darker than this, based on the cover and the general tone of the blurb. Maybe I'm just jaded, but forced clinical trials and abusive guards feels like the low end of the prison-torture spectrum for me. Then again, it could be the detached feeling of the writing which made it feel less intense than intended. Somehow, it felt both like a clinically detached omniscient narrative and like a claustrophobic, tightly contained POV. For me, that took me out of the empathic reaction I'd have otherwise felt to the main character and made me feel a bit more like I was looking in at an animal in a zoo.

For the first half of this book, that's amazing for the atmosphere. It really sells the dehumanization of the main character and sense of unease in the prison compound as a whole. Then the weirdly fluffy bits start to settle in, and it just feels dissonant and confusing. I guessed from the first moment exactly what was up with the guard, even though the nuances weren't part of the writing prompt and thus I feel like it was just too easily telegraphed. I also never really felt convinced of the romance aspect; it felt a bit more like desperation and loneliness mixed with inconsistent trauma responses.

The ending was far too rushed to be believable, as well. To go from sheer panic at the idea of using his own name to, a few sentences later, resolving himself to use it... Just too fast. And that's one of the least confusingly rushed elements of the ending. The epilogue, in the style of a text book entry, was bad. No nice way for me to say it: the writing was horrible for a ‘text book,' reading more like a child's essay for school, and the events were just a rushed and handwaved Happily Ever After which felt completely out of the realm of possibility where the actual story ended.

So, no, it wasn't great. But I did enjoy the first half and I think I'd have liked the story as a whole if it were longer, didn't have the epilogue, and took more time to allow for emotional responses in the readers. So much potential, partially realized then partially squandered...

That said, I'm not sure how the version I read compares to the one which now costs a dollar on Amazon. It was originally a freebie for the M/M Romance Group, apparently; I don't remember how I found it, but it's been sitting unread on my device for years, even before I had a goodreads account. Possibly I got it from a website or a friend sharing a link. Either way, that's a tangent. My point is that it used to be free, and then it was removed by the author and now this edition is listed as the ‘first edition' with another version available on Amazon for a dollar. Considering this was written as part of an event where the intention is to share free stories, that rubs me the wrong way, so I can only hope that extensive editing and perhaps even expansion went into it before deciding to monetize. I'll never know, because I'm not interested enough to buy the Amazon version and compare.

As the freebie I finally got around to reading with incentive of my Read A Rainbow challenge, I'd say it wasn't a bad choice. I've read better, I've read worse, and I enjoyed the beginning enough to forgive the end (while pretending the epilogue doesn't exist). It was alright, and right now that's pretty high praise for my current reading mood wherein I'm convinced everything sucks and nothing is worth my time.

3.5 stars

I really liked it apart from the too wrapped up HEA ending.

I know this is a crappy review but Goodreads won't let me do half star ratings so I have to specify in the review, then I feel like I have to say something about the book. Get with the program GR so I can be more lazy!