A review by dherzey
Unteachable by Elliot Wake

2.0

"We have no age. We exist outside of time. We're timeless."

Truthfully, this book started out really well. We have Maise O'Malley, your usual fucked-up protagonist who doesn't give a fuck. I adore this girl. She got all those scarred childhood thing going, but unlike other NA characters, she hide it beneath easy smiles and confident strides. She knows her charms and doesn't need anyone to reassure her that and she definitely isn't afraid to wield it. She is honest, bold and sarcastic without being overly-annoying. But despite her bravado, she was also stupid. Stupid, desperate, stupid...

Okay, fine, she was only seventeen and people are stupid and reckless and are suckers for the thrills in life. But our protagonist had said she doesn't want to be like her addicted mom and yet she was becoming like her. She knows what she is doing -- having an affair with her teacher, making out in his classroom -- but she wasn't responsible enough. They weren't even discreet enough. I also thought, despite her issues, that she'll be stronger and smarter than what this book presented. I mean, how can I possibly buy Maise and Evan's affections when they have only met for one night and she fell in love (lust) with him because she was the only man who ever asked her name during sex?

The scenes which happened after doesn't convince me either that what she felt was love or freefall or whatever. It was pure infatuation. All they ever did was fuck. In a motel, in his apartment, in the classroom, everywhere and she barely knows him at all. At first the sex scenes were fine until it becomes repetitive and dull. Even their every touch, every whisper was redundant like sending tingles up her spine etcetera. It got tedious to read the many details and metaphors everytime they laid eyes on each other. I can't just buy that shit. I can't just buy this as love.

I just wished something more had happened than them having sex.

"Out of everything I ever learned from Evan Wilke, I think that lesson was the most important: that none of us actually grow up."

Evan or Mr. Wilke, the love interest, was okay. I just don't care about him. In fact, I couldn't care less about the characters (except maybe for Siobhan and Wesley because they actually got personality or that quirkiness about them). Evan was just not doing it -- making me fall in love with him. He is one dimensional, just a stick with a hot bod. And it is hard to care about someone whose whole existence was to make love with the protagonist. He was supposed to be teaching her something about filming, I guess? But it was brushed off somewhere and I can't actually remember them doing anything than making out.

I actually liked the secondary characters better -- especially Wesley and Siobhan. And am I the only one who wished that Maise fell in love with Wesley instead? I actually thought they would make an adorable couple but oh well, not my story to spin.

I think the best thing about this book is actually the writing. It was beautiful and painted everything so vividly and with such great detail like a thousand colorful brushstrokes. I just can quote the whole book if only for how it is written.

"All of this came from one night. If I hadn't gone to the carnival, you would've looked at me like any other student when I walked into your class. And that made my heart ache, too -- the thought of how much happiness lay scattered across the universe, unrealized, in fragments, waiting for the right twist of fate to bring it together."

Maise's sudden change wasn't developed well. Evan has no depth. The plot was dull in most of the book. Thankfully, the drama isn't overboard but the ending just felt unrealistic.

Spoiler

Too perfect. To be honest, I'm expecting no happily everafter because I am not convinced about Maise and Evan's so-called love.

I don't like the way it ended. There's many aspects I found good here especially that writing style, but I am just not intrigue enough. Just sort of detached. For all the good it has, it just wasn't enough.

From all the glowing reviews, I think I am just expecting something more from Unteachable which it failed to hand: a student-teacher relationship that doesn't seemed like lust, more of a plot than sex, a love that doesn't seemed to be based on who's first, and something more bittersweet and emotionally effective than this.