Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Thirst Trap

AUTHOR:  Zachary Ryan

PUBLISHER:  Kingston Publishing Company

LENGTH:  228 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 4, 2019

BLURB:

Tragedy comes in all forms, and you never know how you’ll deal with it. Four friends have all dealt with their fair share of struggles. Dillion, an aspiring writer with writers block because of his brothers sudden death, Jesse the emotional stunted drink thanks to his boyfriend’s suicide, Ivan the abused victim just looking for a place to call home, and Leo the stubborn romantic trying to get his friends to open up, while keeping his issues close to his chest.

With these four friends, they avoid all their elephants in the room like a death card agreement between Dillion and Jesse, Ivan completely hoping his abusive lover with change or even Leo focusing on his friends problems instead of his own. Can these four friends learn to embrace and accept their own tragedy or will they be stuck in the past?

Thirst Trap is a humorous coming of age novel dealing with sexuality, tragedy, substance abuse, and the most beautiful insane friendships.

REVIEW:

Thirst Trap is the story of four emotionally stunted men struggling with how to behave like adults. I was drawn to the book by its cover; I wish I hadn’t been.  

First, let’s address the constant editing problems:  word tense, missing or misused punctuation, extraneous words, and misspellings. There are plenty of wrong word choices, such as vain/vein, conscious/conscience, lies/lives, and many, many more. I might have felt better about the book if a human editor had read through the manuscript, but as it is, it was So. Darn. Distracting and I couldn’t get past it. I unwisely ignored all of the editing errors in the blurb where one character’s name is even misspelled. Twice.  

Next, the author calls this is a coming-of-age novel. It is not. Coming-of-age refers to the growth of a protagonist from youth to adulthood, and the associated crises that late adolescence might serve up, possibly including sexual experimentation, losing one’s virginity, sexual identity, and dating. The men (and I use that term loosely) are in their twenties and thirties, out, and very sexually experienced.  

Third, the blurb states that the book is humorous. It’s not. There’s no wit, no banter, no playful snark, no clever sarcasm, and no dry humor. What we do get is nearly constant bickering.  

Finally, none of the characters are likable; sympathetic at time, yes, but none of them show the emotional growth required to redeem themselves. 

Dillon is the youngest and newest member of the group of four friends. He is a go-go dancer who will have unprotected sex with any man. He has been aimless since his older brother died suddenly two years prior. 

Jesse’s boyfriend died by suicide the previous year. He drinks his way through life, drowning his grief in the bottle. Yet he still sleeps in the same bed he shared with his boyfriend, underneath the spot he found his limp body hanging. 

Ivan is an abuse victim who blames himself for his boyfriend’s violence and feels he deserves to be hit, kicked, and punched.  

And Leo, the oldest of the group and married, tries to get the others to talk about their problems, yet won’t communicate his own woes to either his friends or his husband. 

The basic premise of the book is not bad, it’s just poorly executed. There’s sadness and poignancy, but no depth.  It’s a somewhat interesting character study, but is most certainly not a romance nor a coming of age tale. There are no happy endings; tepid endings maybe. These men need to experience more growth before they can obtain happiness.  

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Kingston Publishing Company

Amazon