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A review by duchessrin
The End of Feeling by Cindy C. Bennett
3.0
• 2.5 stars •
I'm gonna be very frank: I almost died from boredom because of this story.
Benjamin Nefer is that guy in school. He thinks he's God's gift to the female kind, he's a jock, he breaks hearts. He's the stereotype of what a popular guy is. But underneath that façade, he's an unfeeling bastard (ha!) and actually suffers physical abuse from his dad. He claims not to not feel anything after what he'd been through.
Enter new girl Charlie Austin. She doesn't fall with Benjamin's charms and whatnot but somehow they formed a friendship that both of them never expected.
The progress of the story was agonizingly slow. Nothing much happens until halfway of the story. Noting the slow pace, I expected a build-up to happen but the climax felt insufficient for me. The ending felt too abrupt too.
Also, even if the characters were close to my age, I couldn't connect with them. They were also very confusing.
My biggest issue here was Benjamin. He was one of those "tell but don't show" characters. He claimed to not feel anything and he once said that he couldn't care so he couldn't love or something along those lines. So of course I automatically assume that he would be indifferent with almost everything because he couldn't feel, right? He couldn't love, hate, or care at all. But no. I wasn't given that. He cared about Charlie's mom, he hated his mother, he liked treating girls he dated like doormats. I'm not saying that he shouldn't do those things save the latter but seriously, I needed consistency. Those contradictions made him a very unstable character for me.
Also, he was an enabler. Up until now, I still didn't understand why he allowed his father to beat him up almost every day. He could easily defeat him if he wanted to. For Pete's sake, he was a quarterback and a boxer. Playing those sports, surely he realized that size wasn't everything when it came to fighting. Add to that, his father was always drunk when he beat him up so what the fuck was up with that?
With Charlie, well, there were a lot of times when I said, "I told you so." Her friends kept on telling her not to fall for Benjamin's charms and she kept on saying that she wouldn't. The next thing they knew, she told them that she was Benjamin's girlfriend. And she still didn't expect that he would break her heart, after hearing her friend's story? Hahaha.
Overall, I was extremely disappointed. When I read the blurb, I expected something new because it had all of the ingredients for an NA book. (This is YA, by the way.)
He's Benjamin, Benjamin Nefer, the guy all of my friends warned me about. The guy who, on my first day here, tried to ensnare me. Who would use me and dump me at moment's notice.
I'm gonna be very frank: I almost died from boredom because of this story.
Benjamin Nefer is that guy in school. He thinks he's God's gift to the female kind, he's a jock, he breaks hearts. He's the stereotype of what a popular guy is. But underneath that façade, he's an unfeeling bastard (ha!) and actually suffers physical abuse from his dad. He claims not to not feel anything after what he'd been through.
Enter new girl Charlie Austin. She doesn't fall with Benjamin's charms and whatnot but somehow they formed a friendship that both of them never expected.
The progress of the story was agonizingly slow. Nothing much happens until halfway of the story. Noting the slow pace, I expected a build-up to happen but the climax felt insufficient for me. The ending felt too abrupt too.
Also, even if the characters were close to my age, I couldn't connect with them. They were also very confusing.
My biggest issue here was Benjamin. He was one of those "tell but don't show" characters. He claimed to not feel anything and he once said that he couldn't care so he couldn't love or something along those lines. So of course I automatically assume that he would be indifferent with almost everything because he couldn't feel, right? He couldn't love, hate, or care at all. But no. I wasn't given that. He cared about Charlie's mom, he hated his mother, he liked treating girls he dated like doormats. I'm not saying that he shouldn't do those things save the latter but seriously, I needed consistency. Those contradictions made him a very unstable character for me.
Also, he was an enabler. Up until now, I still didn't understand why he allowed his father to beat him up almost every day. He could easily defeat him if he wanted to. For Pete's sake, he was a quarterback and a boxer. Playing those sports, surely he realized that size wasn't everything when it came to fighting. Add to that, his father was always drunk when he beat him up so what the fuck was up with that?
With Charlie, well, there were a lot of times when I said, "I told you so." Her friends kept on telling her not to fall for Benjamin's charms and she kept on saying that she wouldn't. The next thing they knew, she told them that she was Benjamin's girlfriend. And she still didn't expect that he would break her heart, after hearing her friend's story? Hahaha.
Overall, I was extremely disappointed. When I read the blurb, I expected something new because it had all of the ingredients for an NA book. (This is YA, by the way.)