Evans, Richard Paul: The Gift
The Gift
Writer: Richard Paul Evans
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 332
If you've read this journal for at least a year, you know that Richard Paul Evans is one of my guilty reading pleasures. And there's a part of me the cringes every time I see a new release on the shelves, because I tell myself that it's nothing but sentimental fluff and the books are a habit I need to break. I feel that way even as I buy the latest release, shelve it until the following Christmas, and even while I'm reading it.
Don't get me wrong, when Evans is good, he's very good. But on the whole, churning out a book a year with predictable romances and characters that are just a notch above cardboard kind of sours the good stuff. I have to actually think about the books he's done that I feel are really worth reading (and re-reading), and I suppose I keep picking up the latest releases to continue my lovely hardback collection as well as hope to find another jewel.
You will notice that The Gift is not the 2008 release, but rather the 2007. I didn't get this sucker before Christmas, and since it is, in its own way, a Christmas story, I decided to wait until Christmas to read it. I haven't bought the 2008 release yet. If I get it for Christmas, well, that'll be another year before I break the habit, but if I don't, maybe it's time to retire this particular author.
The premise: Nathan Hurst meets a single mom and her children while stranded at an airport. He feels sorry for them, and offers them his suite at the hotel, generously offering to sleep in the hallway. However, the family lets him stay, and he finds himself falling for the mom, Addison, while being charmed by her children, particularly the boy Collin, who's got leukemia and a heart condition, and also happens to have a rather magical touch, the gift of healing. Unfortunately, every time Collin heals someone, it makes him sicker, and since he's already got a host of health problems, he's not long for this world.
Spoilers ahead.
This book was a kind of let down, the kind of book that makes me step back from the guilty pleasure aspect and really examine why I continue to read Evans's stuff. Like I said, when he's good, he's really good, but this book had no tension, no real plot, and any source of tension was both superficial and horribly cliche. It's not that I had trouble believing that people would act this way when Collin's gift is revealed to the public, it's just I couldn't really put myself in any of the characters's shoes, nor could I find myself caring what happened at the end. Then again, part of that is Evans's fault: he sticks in a prologue that pretty much tells us he marries Addison and that Collin dies. Gee, way to suck the tension out of a book.
There's also the problem that this book reminded me too much of the show Pushing Daisies. Pure coincidence, no doubt, as Pushing Daisies and The Gift premiered fall of 2007, but still, you have a kid who can heal the sick (and at one point, wake up a dead dog), and you've got an assistant who may not be in love with her boss, but has Olive Snook written ALL OVER HER. OHMIGOD I kept seeing Kristin Chenoweth as Miche, it was that uncanny.
And the romance never truly felt earned. The issues Nathan, the narrator, had to deal with were never issues that were a barrier between him and Addison, and Addison's only issue was dealing with the health of her son, which was legit, but neither character really had to WORK for the other, and that made the story a little less interesting. Then again, the prologue spoiled it.
The characters were really underdeveloped in this book. I was appalled and just how BAD the BAD characters were. Collin's father, Steve, was a money-hungry, greedy idiot who was willing to use his son's gift to make millions of dollars, even if it meant the act of using the gift would kill the boy. And then there was the public, or rather the people who allowed the public to know. Sure, Addison tried to make certain people promise not to tell, but she never, ever did the smart thing by telling those same people that Collin healing them meant Collin would get sicker, and when she did, it was too late. That was irresponsible, and the little sister Lizzy really ticked me off when she begged Collin to revive the dog, because Addison should have IMPRESSED upon those children that the gift is NOT to be talked about, let alone used in public. If Lizzy really wanted her dog back, they should've carried her into the house and THEN revived her. I know Lizzy's a kid who doesn't know any better, but still.
The book is just plain flawed. It reads fast at least, and that's a good thing, and there are some teary moments, but overall, it's simply sentimental fluff, and that's not a term I use lightly.
My Rating
Wish I'd Borrowed It: definitely not one of Evans's stronger offerings. It's got his usual sentimental, sweet romance, but it's lacking in solid characterization and making his characters really earn their ending. The premise also reminds me a little too much of Pushing Daisies, which isn't Evans's fault, but the comparison is in my mind and it also kept distracting me from the book. Fans of Evans will probably want to check this out, but it's not a keeper. If you haven't read Evans yet but are interested, I wouldn't recommend starting with this one. Try his debut, The Christmas Box, instead.
Next up:
No idea. I'll wait and see what I get for Christmas. ;)