Review: The Ties That Bind by S. Davidson
Note: This ARC was provided by the author via Enticing Journey Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
I had to take a step back after finishing The Ties That Bind in order to fully wrap my head around it. If it were my heart alone that I had to consider, there wasn't much left of it once I was done with this story set in the 1990s, a time when there was a bit more information on AIDS--acquired immune deficiency syndrome--but there was still so much more about it that people didn't know. I'm in my early 40s so I still remember when AIDS first fully entered the psyche of the public. Very little was known about it and it was labeled by far too many as a disease that only gay men were afflicted with. It was given the face of a famous actor whose true sexuality became more the topic of discussion than the disease itself, but I recall the story of one particular teenager who was not gay, but suffered from hemophilia and acquired the disease through a transfusion. Inroads have been made over the past couple of decades, but this novel reminds us of things past and those that continue to unfortunately linger on now.
The story has three primary characters--Gregory Westcoff, Tomi Jamison, and Morgan--and each one is damaged in their own way, although some more prominently obvious than others. This is a VERY gritty read, a coming-of-age story that doesn't always have the kind of answers that can provide neatly wrapped endings, so if you're the kind of reader that prefers fluff romances, I recommend you skip this. S. Davidson's writing pulls no punches and she makes no apologies for the harsh realities that her characters are forced to contend with. My main point of contention, however, is the lack of trigger warnings, a lapse on the part of the publisher since I would assume whether or not the author had them, the editor and/or publisher would have picked up on it. But I'm going to set aside my apprehension regarding those warnings and focus on the contents of the book story- and character-wise because, although not for everyone, those were quite enough for me to award The Ties That Bind a five-star rating. ♥
The story has three primary characters--Gregory Westcoff, Tomi Jamison, and Morgan--and each one is damaged in their own way, although some more prominently obvious than others. This is a VERY gritty read, a coming-of-age story that doesn't always have the kind of answers that can provide neatly wrapped endings, so if you're the kind of reader that prefers fluff romances, I recommend you skip this. S. Davidson's writing pulls no punches and she makes no apologies for the harsh realities that her characters are forced to contend with. My main point of contention, however, is the lack of trigger warnings, a lapse on the part of the publisher since I would assume whether or not the author had them, the editor and/or publisher would have picked up on it. But I'm going to set aside my apprehension regarding those warnings and focus on the contents of the book story- and character-wise because, although not for everyone, those were quite enough for me to award The Ties That Bind a five-star rating. ♥
Date Read: 15 June 2017
Learn more about S. Davidson.
Purchase The Ties That Bind on Amazon.
Trigger warnings have been added to Amazon. Thank you for the lovely review.
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