Best Gay Contemporary Romance (3° place) Caught by A.B. Gayle
Even if the matter is everything other than light, suicide, the story is not so heavy as it could have been.
Danny is an Asian man (Chinese) leaving in Sidney, Australia. This is probably the only point I actually didn’t understand, why a man who was raised in the US and studied there, and had also a job he liked, when his parents moved back to Hong Kong decided to live in Australia? All right Sidney-Hong Kong is probably shorter than Los Angeles-Honk Kong, but it’s not that he is in so good relationship with his parents (one of the main points of the story) so sincerely this side of the story was a mystery for me.
Anyway Danny is living with a nice old lady who is on a wheelchair; she lives near a cliff and she was shocked when she saw a young man committing suicide and she couldn’t do anything to prevent it. She decided to rent a room at a discounted rate to someone who was willing to be her legs and trying to prevent such event again. Danny is that man.
Due to his bad relationship with his own parents, who practically disowned him, Danny has big self-esteem issues. Other than growing his hair long, to rebel against traditions, Danny is trying to live the life his parents wanted for him, i.e. to be as much a wallpaper flower as he can. And so Danny avoid strong colours, he is very good to mix with the background, and for this reason, he is also very good to approach people without them noticing it’s not a casual meeting but something that was planned.
With Taylor it was his usual method: approaching him, talking, and trying to understand what is the reason why he is so near the cliff and almost ready to jump. Only that Danny’s excuse to approach him, “can you take a picture of me”, awakens in Taylor something Danny was not expecting: from a simple photo to almost a complete shot, it’s Danny that is forced “out” from his apathy. Apparently to help Taylor, Danny has to stay in center stage, having all eyes, Taylor’s eyes, fixed on him instead than on the cliff.
This is a novella that span one day and one night, and at the end, not Danny or Taylor’s issues will be completed solved. And in any case I don’t think that was the final purpose of the author, but more giving you the proof that sometime a little coincidence, a feeble reason, can save a life.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1975
Amazon Kindle: Caught
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 7, 2010)
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle