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A review by dith_kusu
The Edge of the World by Garrett Leigh
4.0
3.75 stars. I liked yet simultaneously was not completely all in for this lyrical, not quite giving all the details writing style, I didn't know how to better describe it. We're kind of just dropped into this world the characters inhabit and just follow them right away in what they're doing at the moment, the whole environment that they're in is not fully explored.
I would've liked more scenes on how Shay is this I'm assuming pretty successful musician in this successful band, his indie music style and concerts with his bandmates, more on how Ollie is doing this Sky documentary tracing Shay's genealogy, which I didn't fully grasp why he would be touring with them showing Shay bits and pieces of his ancestors out of order, and be filming himself without a camera crew, so on.
I liked Shay and Ollie together, but at the same time there's just something that kept me from being completely engaged with the couple and their surroundings. As background for the characters, it was important to know that Shay was exploring his genetic roots after not really wondering about his biological family, and Ollie's past was compelling, him being this cute-nerdy BBC reporter but he'd been through this traumatic car accident and was still dealing with PTSD from his burns and is insecure about his severe scarring on his body, that they both helped each other. There was just too much of those details though, I felt, and less of their connecting and love story beyond their sleeping together during junctures of the band's tour.
Shay's family history elaborations were interesting-ish, I guess it was a tool to help the two bond and fall in love but especially since the reader gets all this info including how he had extended family and it doesn't really lead anywhere, I didn't see much point of the heavy focus on this aspect. (Apparently the author has books with the family as characters in it, so this is loosely connected in a Garrett Leigh crossover universe)
One thing I liked here is that the couple being gay isn't a big social issue or conflict in the stories- that's already accepted and we're moving on more to their internal issues and their dynamic while falling in love. I appreciated that.
I would've liked more scenes on how Shay is this I'm assuming pretty successful musician in this successful band, his indie music style and concerts with his bandmates, more on how Ollie is doing this Sky documentary tracing Shay's genealogy, which I didn't fully grasp why he would be touring with them showing Shay bits and pieces of his ancestors out of order, and be filming himself without a camera crew, so on.
I liked Shay and Ollie together, but at the same time there's just something that kept me from being completely engaged with the couple and their surroundings. As background for the characters, it was important to know that Shay was exploring his genetic roots after not really wondering about his biological family, and Ollie's past was compelling, him being this cute-nerdy BBC reporter but he'd been through this traumatic car accident and was still dealing with PTSD from his burns and is insecure about his severe scarring on his body, that they both helped each other. There was just too much of those details though, I felt, and less of their connecting and love story beyond their sleeping together during junctures of the band's tour.
Shay's family history elaborations were interesting-ish, I guess it was a tool to help the two bond and fall in love but especially since the reader gets all this info including how he had extended family and it doesn't really lead anywhere, I didn't see much point of the heavy focus on this aspect. (Apparently the author has books with the family as characters in it, so this is loosely connected in a Garrett Leigh crossover universe)
One thing I liked here is that the couple being gay isn't a big social issue or conflict in the stories- that's already accepted and we're moving on more to their internal issues and their dynamic while falling in love. I appreciated that.