Review - "What Remains"

What Remains
by Garrett Leigh
rating:☆☆
published: 4th July 2016
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

What Remains follows the story of Jodi and Rupert after Jodi is the victim of a hit-and-run which results in Jodi having amnesia and not being able to recall anything of the previous five years of his life, with Rupert.

To be honest, I thought this book would have a different format than it did. I was expecting something like them meeting, getting together, then the accident, and subsequent recovery, but in fact it started with the accident, interspersed with memories of their meeting and relationship, before switching to the present once Jodi woke up. It's not a bad way of doing things, but it was a little disorientating at first, and also it felt like there wasn't enough in the way of how they met and got together. In a way, it kind of made the accident less angsty and emotional, because I knew next to nothing about their relationship beforehand.

Also at first, the book kind of dragged, and I had to motivate myself to read it, which is always going to cause my rating to lower, even if it later picks up and I enjoy it (which was the case here). The writing just wasn't doing it for me, which could have just been that I wasn't in the right mood or it wasn't for me, but also that it wasn't great.

There were various small things throughout the book that irritated me too. One is the arse slapping (which is like my biggest bugbear with this kind of lit. I hate it so much), but thankfully that only happened once. The other was the way the author wrote Indie's speaking. Like, I get she's a little kid, but I've never heard a kid of any age say "cwunchy cuddles". I don't even know what "cwunchy cuddles" is supposed to mean! Also, Rupert's incessant use of the word "boyo", which a) again I've never heard anyone say ("kiddo", yes, but not "boyo"), and b) is that supposed to be an attempt at marking him as Irish? O-K. (Same with the "aye", which, to me, is more stereotypically Scottish than Irish, but like, what do I know.) The word "boyo" really bugged me the most when he said it during sex scenes. Not gonna lie, it was pretty off-putting. Not to mention, that I associate that word with grandpas for some reason, which made it doubly so.

Despite my issues, this book still managed to make me emotional, especially when Jodi didn't remember who Rupert was (this is why I don't read amnesia fics, damnit!), so I'm maybe being a little harsh in my rating.