Georgie, All Along. by Kate Clayborn
Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Georgie, 28 years old, in spite of being highly successful at her job as a personal assistant has recently been let go by her latest employer. She takes a break and comes home to her rural hometown due to feeling like huge parts of her are simply “blank”. She finds an old notebook she created when she was 13, shortly before entering high school. So what’s a successful 28 year old to do? She decides to do what her thirteen year old self considered great ideas: Like jumping into a river from a dock that was probably “safe enough” some 15 years ago but has been neglected since… What could possibly go wrong, eh?
In the process, Georgie meets Levi and proceeds in her teenage rampage with him – including heavy petting and extensive dry-humping on her parents’ couch… I could certainly relate to that – not at 28, though.
Then there’s Levi. For most of the book, Levi “who is very nearly in [his] midthirties” is brooding, angsty, anxious and insecure. He, too, has come a long way: From local troublemaker to local dock builder, Levi rose to many occasions – just not confronting his toxic father and, thus, he’s also estranged from his siblings for no good reason at all.
Yes, I get it, it’s certainly possible to deeply and thoroughly internalise parental abuse but Levi is in therapy and yet never addressed his daddy issues?! Sorry, that’s hard to believe…
Also, dear Levi acts immensely immature at a certain point. That scene was so mind-numbingly stupid I could hardly believe what I had read. The “big reveal” about the “blankness” Georgie feels was another major let-down; the explanation of it all is so ridiculously simple that only our 28-year-old going on 13 could come up with it.
At several points I wondered how those two people had even made it alive to 28 and mid-thirties respectively…
Thankfully, there are some redeeming qualities: Once everyone starts actually talking with each other, things start making some sense at least. A certain scene between Levi and his brother actually felt real and believable.
All in all, this read like a shallow “dramedy” rather than the romantic comedy I expected but this novel failed to realise its potential.
A generous three stars out of five.
Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
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