Review - "Out of Nowhere"

Out of Nowhere, Middle of Somewhere #2
by Roan Parrish
rating:☆☆☆☆
published: 29th February 2016
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

“Armor’s not dangerous. That’s for survival. It’s weapons you have to watch out for. And you—” He strokes my lips with his thumb. “It’s mostly armor, Colin. And when you’re with me, the armor falls away. Who you are without it… it’s beautiful.”

It's books like this that make trawling through all the trash ones worth it. That's not to say it's perfect, because it isn't and there are definitely things about it that I didn't fully like, but it's a helluva lot better than some of what's going.

I loved the characters (except Daniel, and maybe Rex but he didn't appear much, which is going to make reading his book and being sympathetic really hard but hey) even when they were doing their level best to rip my heart to shreds. In fact, I love them so much, I periodically go back and reread my favourite parts. (Please, Roan Parrish, do me a solid and write another book about these characters.)

The issues I did have mainly revolved around an apparent inability on the author's part to see plot threads through. First of all, it's revealed that Colin has attempted suicide multiple times but it's never really dealt with beyond him recalling it, or Daniel bringing it up once as a memory. Then there's the self-harm, which happens once, after Colin's dad dies, and all we get is Rafe noticing the cuts and commenting that it was "a bad one". That's it. No development, no attempt at dealing with it. Nothing.

So you would forgive me for being a bit wary when it is revealed that Colin was raped because, on the basis of the other two heavy issues that were mentioned then dropped, you might expect the same to happen with this one. In a way, it does, although it does get more discussion than the cursory "it was a bad one", which is nice (Rafe even makes the comment that men can be raped too). Equally it somewhat makes it seem like all these issues have been lumped on Colin to make him a tragic MC, and they're left unresolved (but apparently not so unresolved too, because everyone's happy at the end, and I guess there must have been something going on to make that happen?). Also, occasionally they seemed to be thrown in at the last minute, almost as an afterthought, although that could be because the author was writing from Colin's POV and he had blanked them from his memory because of the trauma.

Anyway, overall it's great. The characters are brilliant (and the character development!! Slay me!!!) and the writing is good and engaging (which seems to rarely happen...) and really, Roan Parrish, I need more of these characters (specifically to see Colin and Rafe happy, maybe from an outsider's viewpoint?).