This is a short story. Now, I've never really been overly fond of short stories because nothing really ends up getting developed when you read them. The plot, characters, and setting are usually meant to be more symbolic as supposed to something or someone you'd get attached to, get to know, end up loving and crying for. This book is not excluded from said description, except for the fact that there really isn't any meaning to the plot, characters or setting, so as you can guess, overall, I did not enjoy it in the least.
Absorbed is about a passive, gentle woman named Violet. She has a boyfriend whom she loves, however, he has a bit of a mean streak. He's abusive. After continuously blaming herself for the bruises, fights, and insults, one day she receives a gift to counteract it all - a beautiful ruby red necklace on her doorstep. She has no idea who the sender is, but none the less, decides to accept the gift. With the necklace she feels empowered, without it, scared and insignificant. So, wearing it might not be such a bad idea right?
Wrong, so very wrong. In fact, this was how I felt about the story, it was so very wrong for me that I simply could not enjoy it. This is a short story pretending to be a book. I don't like this type of format, it just simply doesn't work for me. I felt nothing towards the characters, I never really got to know them and everything just happened so fast, WAY TOO fast. Mr. Boyfriend got set off instantly when he showed up. Maybe that's what happens in abusive relationships, but I didn't get to see much more than that, he was just the loud, drunk guy that you were supposed to hate. Basically, Flat. Appropriate word for the characters in the story.
The writing was good, not brilliant and maybe a little choppy, but still decent. I didn't like that the story was in first person, but that's probably just a taste thing for me personally.
The idea behind Absorbed was interesting, the execution however, was not. I really shouldn't be complaining though, as the book was free. For those of you that are looking for hipster points, there are indie books on kindle you can get for free. It changes daily, this is how I stumbled upon this story. I got a couple that looked kind of good and downloaded them. "Malaika", "Valor", and "The Two Pound Chick Magnet" are the ones I'm going to give a try. Hopefully I'll enjoy them better than this one (although those are actual books so, the chances are better that I will). The link is below.
BTW, Final verdict: 5.0 - 5.5/10.0 (mainly because it was a short story, so I wasn't expecting much and it WAS free)
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