The Defeatist

The Defeatist by Sophie Bowns

★★★

♥ ♥ ♥

If you like narratives constructed almost solely on dialogue and interesting takes on death, The Defeatist is for you. Set in modern day, The Defeatist takes on an interesting tale of what happens after death. Specifically, after the suicide of Jude.

This book is extremely dialogue heavy and thus, the story progresses slowly and by only small measures. Depression, physical disability, and abuse in both hetero and homosexual relationship are depicted in a reasonably accurate way. I’m actually quite a fan of the domestic abuse largely because it is not glorified or romanticized in the least. It is abuse. It is not cut and cry but it sure as shit isn’t romantic.

Unfortunately, as with Blood Magic by Ann Atkins, this is a first person narrative that I desperately wish had been told from the perspective of the other main character. Where I would have liked to hear more about Mason’s struggles through his search for Allie in Blood Magic, I was much more interested in Tiffany’s life and how she died than I was Jude and his suicide. As Cactus says, I apparently want what I can’t have.

Both Tiffany and Jude have abilities in the after life, though their abilities differ. I hesitate to call them “magic” or “powers” as both abilities seem more like standard functions of the afterlife rather than a gift or supernatural ability.

Over all, I think The Defeatist would have benefited from alternating perspectives between Jude and Tiffany, a lot more description and non-dialogue narrative to balance out the massive amount of dialogue, and perhaps a bit of reading aloud of the dialogue as it sounds a bit stiff and unnatural at times.

Breakdown

Pros:

Interesting afterlife theory
Non-romanticized depictions of abuse
Happy Ending

Cons:

Too much dialogue for my taste
Moves very slowly
Not much action

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this work for an honest review.