A review by gee_reads_books
At the Edge of the Universe, by Shaun David Hutchinson
2.0
I've been championing SDH's works for a long time now - about 5 years? -, so I was really looking forwards to enjoying "At The Edge Of The Universe". The premise in and of itself is quite compelling; a boy called Tommy has vanished from existence, and nobody seems to remember him other than our main character Ozzie Pinkerton. Tommy was Ozzie's boyfriend, so he's determined to find him; but the universe keeps shrinking, history keeps changing, and a classmate by the name of Calvin has been hanging out with him lately.
Only, it wasn't very well executed. I'm a bookworm through and through, so I'll gladly read almost any story with all my delight and passion, but this one almost put me to sleep several times. The narrative felt extremely repetitive, and although some people will definitely enjoy the über-metaphor that this book aims to be, I personally found it underwhelming and boring. After having read and loved "We Are The Ants" a few years ago, it felt like I was reading the exact same thing, only with a change in the characters' names, the kind of sci-fi weird stuff, and the quality of the prose. It also was quite a dark read at many points, with all the mental illness rep and the toxic interactions between characters, but it didn't work for me. While I can see how these really sad vibes would appeal to a lot of readers, it simply made me dizzy and reminded me of very ugly feelings I definitely didn't want to revisit. Which would've been alright if, once again, the plot itself hadn't been as underwhelming. It felt like stumbling across a particularly thick patch of fog with my socks wet. It would've been fine if it had decided to ditch the sci-fi, and remain a coming-of-age story; or vice versa. But the way it is right now, it's kind of too much, and it becomes static noise.
Another thing that really irked me was Lua, a genderfluid character (he/him/she/her) that's supposed to be Ozzie's best friend. While I'm extremely happy that we got to see genderfluid rep for once, I couldn't have disliked Lua more. Firstly, it's both explained and shown that they're a very abusive person towards her partner, Jaime. In one scene, she throws a glass bottle at him; in another one, he yells at him and calls him horrible names; and all along we learn that this is the standard dynamics she has with Jaime. The IPV Lua exerts on Jaime is never questioned, and I was livid seeing such flagrant abuse go unchallenged. He was also quite a shitty friend to Ozzie for most of the book, his repertory going from calling him crazy and blowing a fuss at him to blaming Ozzie for her own problems, and acting the part of the victim to avoid taking responsibility for her own awful actions and his awful way to treat Ozzie. At one point, during an extremely uncomfortable situation, he tells Ozzie "you're mine", and it made me want to scream.
Calvin, on the other hand, was a really good character - I cared about him heaps more than I cared about Ozzie, in all honesty. After a horrible thing happened to him, Calvin has suddenly fallen from grace; from golden boy to the snoozer, and from popular and bubbly to isolated and depressed. I found his story to be quite well-written, and I was thankful to see such a fleshed-out character development arc as his. He was definitely one of the best things in the book. Still, I wasn't all too convinced about the romantic subplot. We're talking about a victim of sexual abuse, and I couldn't help reading the Christmas? scene as pretty dubcon. I also think that Ozzie cared exactly zero shits about his abuse, which made me dislike him as a main character so much.
The plot in and of itself seemed to drag a lot, and I couldn't really find any reason to care that the universe was shrinking, that Tommy was missing, or that Warren was going away. Supposedly Ozzie going to therapists is important, but it felt like an excuse to slip more pages in, and have some banter on the page with which to diffuse the overall doom and gloom. In theory, he's determined to find Tommy, but in truth it felt choppy and, more than love, it came across as a very unhealthy obsession I couldn't make myself root for. We're told that Ozzie has a drive, but all along he's really passive and bland. And the amount of times we're told about Tommy is just too much.
It was sad to be left so unimpressed and bored by a book I wanted to love so much. Still, I'm clearly in the minority here, so most probably other people will adore it!
Only, it wasn't very well executed. I'm a bookworm through and through, so I'll gladly read almost any story with all my delight and passion, but this one almost put me to sleep several times. The narrative felt extremely repetitive, and although some people will definitely enjoy the über-metaphor that this book aims to be, I personally found it underwhelming and boring. After having read and loved "We Are The Ants" a few years ago, it felt like I was reading the exact same thing, only with a change in the characters' names, the kind of sci-fi weird stuff, and the quality of the prose. It also was quite a dark read at many points, with all the mental illness rep and the toxic interactions between characters, but it didn't work for me. While I can see how these really sad vibes would appeal to a lot of readers, it simply made me dizzy and reminded me of very ugly feelings I definitely didn't want to revisit. Which would've been alright if, once again, the plot itself hadn't been as underwhelming. It felt like stumbling across a particularly thick patch of fog with my socks wet. It would've been fine if it had decided to ditch the sci-fi, and remain a coming-of-age story; or vice versa. But the way it is right now, it's kind of too much, and it becomes static noise.
Another thing that really irked me was Lua, a genderfluid character (he/him/she/her) that's supposed to be Ozzie's best friend. While I'm extremely happy that we got to see genderfluid rep for once, I couldn't have disliked Lua more. Firstly, it's both explained and shown that they're a very abusive person towards her partner, Jaime. In one scene, she throws a glass bottle at him; in another one, he yells at him and calls him horrible names; and all along we learn that this is the standard dynamics she has with Jaime. The IPV Lua exerts on Jaime is never questioned, and I was livid seeing such flagrant abuse go unchallenged. He was also quite a shitty friend to Ozzie for most of the book, his repertory going from calling him crazy and blowing a fuss at him to blaming Ozzie for her own problems, and acting the part of the victim to avoid taking responsibility for her own awful actions and his awful way to treat Ozzie. At one point, during an extremely uncomfortable situation, he tells Ozzie "you're mine", and it made me want to scream.
Calvin, on the other hand, was a really good character - I cared about him heaps more than I cared about Ozzie, in all honesty. After a horrible thing happened to him, Calvin has suddenly fallen from grace; from golden boy to the snoozer, and from popular and bubbly to isolated and depressed. I found his story to be quite well-written, and I was thankful to see such a fleshed-out character development arc as his. He was definitely one of the best things in the book. Still, I wasn't all too convinced about the romantic subplot. We're talking about a victim of sexual abuse, and I couldn't help reading the Christmas? scene as pretty dubcon. I also think that Ozzie cared exactly zero shits about his abuse, which made me dislike him as a main character so much.
The plot in and of itself seemed to drag a lot, and I couldn't really find any reason to care that the universe was shrinking, that Tommy was missing, or that Warren was going away. Supposedly Ozzie going to therapists is important, but it felt like an excuse to slip more pages in, and have some banter on the page with which to diffuse the overall doom and gloom. In theory, he's determined to find Tommy, but in truth it felt choppy and, more than love, it came across as a very unhealthy obsession I couldn't make myself root for. We're told that Ozzie has a drive, but all along he's really passive and bland. And the amount of times we're told about Tommy is just too much.
It was sad to be left so unimpressed and bored by a book I wanted to love so much. Still, I'm clearly in the minority here, so most probably other people will adore it!