Book Review: Not Quite Out by Louise Willingham / July 8, 2022 by A.M. Molloy

Not Quite Out

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Not Quite Out 〰️

I truly wanted to fully love this book because I will never stop advocating for more LGBT+ representation in literature. (Or any form of media, really). And I did like this book, to some extent. I will admit there are things I liked, so I will list them off first before I get into what I didn't like.

First, we love ourselves some good LGBT+ rep. That will never be a negative in my books. Second, I really liked a lot of the secondary characters, especially Lilley (although we don't see her, or much of anyone for that matter, much). Although I will say her suddenly dating Cas at the end did seem to come out of nowhere. Love that it happened, but it felt out of place. I also liked Dan's recovery story. He seemed to be the only one with some character growth, and I did find him likeable.

Unfortunately, I had some issues with the rest of the story, mainly the MC and narrator, Will.

When Will first met Dan, he became very stalker-like, very fast. And then he was just plain obsessive with Dan literally the entire book, so much so that even other characters had to keep pointing out how obsessive he was. I didn't like Will very much, which is sad since he is the MC we are stuck with. He's way too obsessed with Dan from the beginning and can't seem to function unless Dan is literally touching him. Even then, he just bawls at literally everything. Nothing wrong with men showing emotion. In fact, it's terrific. But I feel like Will is just crying and upset at everything and everyone.

Also, I don't think his relationship with Dan is very healthy. Dan was going through some tough times and all Will can think about is how much he wants to be with him. Like I get it, he cared for his friend, but the way he handled every situation just rubbed me the wrong way.

Not to mention Will was so obsessed with Dan that he ignored his friends and even classwork. For someone who wanted to be a doctor, he wasn't putting in the work. Nor do I think he's in the right mindset to become a doctor.

As for the writing, especially for over half the book, they say "thank you" and "you're welcome" (and "I'm sorry" like fifty bazillion times. I get they are polite and all but there had to be better ways to write that. Especially because they'd be thanking each other multiple times per paragraph. It's almost drinking game level. (But don't, because you might die).

I also didn't like that so much time was spent with them going to sleep and waking up. I get the author was trying to make some cute scenes between Will and Dan, but it wasn't doing it for me. I also didn't see any chemistry between them until waaaaay later. Like, near the end later. For most of the book, as I mentioned, it was just Will obsessing over Dan while he was recovering.

The book itself was still a good read. Not the best book I've ever read, but certainly not the worst. I think it could have been excellent with some more revisions. Or have Dan be the MC instead of Will. I really didn't like Will.

SOUTH: A Cast of Diversity / July 4, 2018 by A.M. Molloy

Every novel should have a diverse cast, and not just to make ti believable. After all, the real world isn't all white and black. There are many colours, purple, blue, green, orange, to name a few. And SOUTH is no different. It has a diverse cast of characters of all shapes, sizes, ethnicity, and sexualities -- just like the real world. In fact, SOUTH is a very grounded novel, where the characters are not only relatable, but so are the situations they find themselves in, albeit with a few exceptions. After all, how many people do you know who survived an earthquake? Chances are, not many. (Although surprisingly, I do! But that's another story).

Just look at the photos above and below this paragraph. AJ White and Minami Kyuki are the stars of the novel and they couldn't be more different. AJ is American. But she's not just a white girl (no pun intended). She has freckles, and piercings, and even a nice tattoo that she got in defiance to her mom! As for Minami, her face -- and body -- are littered with scars from surviving a devastating earthquake in her home country of Japan. Not to mention, she has rare deep-sea blue eyes that are sure to captivate anyone who dares to take a glance.

My point being, not every character has to be perfect. Nor does every character have to be the usual "oh my God I'm an average klutz and a nobody yet somehow the super-hot people are into me and I don't know who to choose and woe is me because I'm really nothing special" kind of person. *cough* kind of like a lot of YA that I've read recently *cough*

The characters in SOUTH are people you'd meet on the street. People with real stuff going on in their lives. Someone you went to school with. Your best friend. The kid whose really awesome at signing but you wouldn't know it because they're too insecure to show it to anyone. The girl with body issues. The one who's a goofball and is very down to earth. The one struggling with their sexual identity with no one to talk to about it.

This is why SOUTH will be a must read for anyone, regardless of age. The novel may be a YA, but there is someone out there, maybe even in their late 40's, who is being harassed and still doesn't know who they are. This novel is for that 40 something year old who wants someone to relate too and maybe gain that confidence they need to come out of the closet and confront the harasser. This novel is for the teenager whose life hasn't been the greatest and needs someone to talk to.

This novel is for you and anyone who reads this.

PS: As a disclaimer, I'm very tried and have been suffering from some weird thing that hasn't allowed me to fall asleep normally since like 2009. (I've been to many doctors, but no one knows what it is, or how to fix it. It's hard to describe, hence why I call it "the weird thing"). Anyway, my point is that this post is not like my usual style (if I even have one at this early stage) and may also be all over the place. I wrote it because it was on my mind and I just wanted to share this before I went to bed. I thought I'd share my inner ramblings so that you can see a tiny bit more into the insides of SOUTH and be just as excited to read it as I am about releasing it.

The Beginning / November 6, 2016 by A.M. Molloy

Welcome to my musings. The blog where I'll be posting snippets of my mind for all to see.

In this first blog post, I've decided to tell a quick tale on how my novel SOUTH came to be.

As we all know, stories can take years to tell and still never be perfect. But it's the imperfection that, oddly enough, makes it perfect to me.

So, a bit of back story before I go any further. SOUTH was originally going to be a comic (and it might very well be someday). The story started many, many years ago, however, it has changed drastically over time.

The original story was called Silent Tears. Here is what it was originally about:

Minami Kyuki’s hearts a battle ground of despair. Faced with more difficulties in her life than the normal teen, Minami copes by living one day at a time. But how long before the tragic events of her past haunts her to her death?

Pretty dark, right? Then in 2010, I changed the story to Shattered. It was still dark but not nearly as much as Silent Tears was. It focused mainly on Minami’s past and eventually leading up to college. I never wrote anything on Shattered, however. I just couldn't figure out how to start it or where it'd go. All good signs that it wasn't a good story to begin with if you ask me.

Then in 2011 I went to Korea for the first time. On the train I saw this one lonely blonde haired white girl in the crowd of Koreans. This random stranger was my inspiration for AJ. This made me want to skip all that back-story stuff and go straight to college years. Somehow this inspired a complete 180 in my story and SOUTH was born.

SOUTH was still originally going to be a comic, with my friend Ryuu doing the artwork. I had originally written two volumes of comic script, but something didn’t feel right. Then one day, while listening to a song, it hit me. I suddenly knew what was missing. I then changed a few small things, which in turn, changed the story a lot. So, I opened up Word and started writing. The words just seemed to flow. Writing it as a novel felt better for this new format.

I started writing the novel version SOUTH around February of 2015. Then I slowly wrote the second chapter a month later. Then I kind of stopped writing for a while. What got me motivated to write again was actually sitting down and writing down and plotting the whole plot on a timeline on paper. To any aspiring authors or hobbies writers, I highly recommend doing this. It's an amazing motivator, especially when you write you can see your progress and it motivates you to keep going. At least, it did so for me. After writing down the plot and seeing the clear path written down so I could write more clearly, the writing poured out of me.

I started writing again in August of 2015, around the time I got an editor. Nothing motivates you to write like having an editor. Within months, I wrote the entire novel to SOUTH. I finished the first draft on December 27th, 2016. Considering I wrote it while doing my BA in Spanish at the University of Prince Edward Island, I was pretty proud of myself.

And that is the story on how SOUTH came to be. The short version, anyway. I am currently working on my third round of edits, and let me just say, thanks to my editor this version is going to be even more amazing if I do say so myself. I'm still learning as a writing and will constantly improve. I strive off good critiques and even hope that if I made any grammatical mistakes or spelling errors in this post, would you be so kind as to point them out in a polite manner. After all, how can I improve if no one says anything?

That being said, I just want to give some quick advice. Write. Never stop writing. Even if your story sucks -- 'cause let's face it, we all have a sucky story written at some point -- just write it anyway. The feeling of actually completing a story is like non-other. Doesn't matter what kind of writing it is, be it a poem, short story, or novel, just write.