Love Deleted - Paul Indigo - ★★★★
AUTHOR: Paul Indigo
NARRATOR: Gill Mills
GENRE: Romance-Drama.
RATING: 4 stars.
In a Nutshell: A romantic drama written in a quirky writing style that I am somewhat undecided about. Great plot and intriguing theme. Very impressive for a debut work.
Story Synopsis:
When Cooper sees something she shouldn’t have seen, she is shattered. That’s when she stumbles upon a website that talks about a revolutionary new procedure called ‘The GateWay Programme’, which could help her erase her love for her husband Jethro, a musician who has just received his first big break.
What happens next? Does Cooper’s heartbreak vanish after the procedure? How does Jethro feel about his wife’s altered behaviour? What does life hold for the duo after this radical step?
The story comes to us in a limited third person perspective of various key characters, and also through a retrospective podcast interview with the doctors behind the procedure.
Bookish Yays:
😍 Some of you might have recollected the brilliant ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (one of my favourite movies) when you read the above synopsis. Not gonna lie, I did too. So when I saw that a debut writer had taken a similar premise, I wanted to see if it was just a rehashed version of the movie. Thankfully, it is not! It takes the same foundation but gives it a very different implementation.
😍 I love it when debut authors push the bar in terms of topics and themes rather than sticking to the tried-and-tested formulae. This book is, at its essence, a romantic drama between a couple who might have lost their way together. But it tackles this in an innovative way, creating such scenarios and raising such questions as to glue us to the proceedings almost throughout.
😍 Cooper and Jethro are quite complicated and layered characters, something not common in this genre. In addition to Cooper and Jethro, we have another couple - Cooper’s elder sister Heather and her husband Eddsy, who are dealing with their own challenge. Both these pairs elevate the book with their realistic portrayal.
😍 Another point connected to the characters, but well-deserving of a separate spot in my Yays list: This story shatters typical character-sketching moulds. When you think “rock musician” or “garage owner” or “tomboy”, your mind creates a certain picture of the characters’ personalities. Yeah well, be ready to kick out all your preconceived notions. Absolutely love this approach!
😍 Just as in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, I enjoyed the concept of altering/eliminating emotions through brain surgery. But what I liked even more is that this is based on an actual science called optogenetics. The author uses quite a bit of the actual science, thereby making the whole procedure sound quite authentic. The nerd in me enjoyed this angle thoroughly.
😍 Even beyond optogenetics, there are many topics in the book where the author’s eye for research shows. Whether in Cooper’s work as a sound engineer (a female MC who is a sound engineer – WOW!) or in the separate arc related to adoption, every detail seems accurate and true-to-life.
😍 On a related note, the author’s bio says that he is a trivia aficionado and this shows up wherever possible. There are plenty of fun facts and interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout the story, most of which feel a natural part of the narrative rather than being coerced into it.
😍 While I could see the angle that the story would take, it didn’t reduce my enjoyment in any way due to the subject matter. Every conundrum faced by the characters made me wonder what I would have done were I in their position. This is among my favourite kind of experience while reading, when I can put myself in a bookish situation and ask “What if?”
😍 Can’t skip mentioning that stunning cover with red poppies. Poppies signify sleep, peace, regeneration, and remembrance. I am not sure if the flower was a deliberate choice in the cover design, but it fit with the book’s themes perfectly.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
😐 I don’t know how to feel about the writing style. It is mostly effective in this book, no doubt about that! The choice of skipping the subject pronouns (a habit I also tend towards in my text messages) created a staccato kind of effect to the narrative. Moreover, the writing used repetition for emphasis. This made me take some time to get into the groove of the book. However, once I got used to the rat-a-tat of sentences, the book was easier on my ears. (The audiobook helped tremendously.) The negative outcome of this writing choice is that there is a lot of telling instead of showing, and the whole book sounds very informal, even in the serious scenes. The dialogues also look artificial at times, feeling overdramatic and movie-like, and with abundant filler words. (Then again, the characters belonged to the same family, so there’s no reason why they had to be formal with each other.) A great part of your experience would depend on how you adapt to the writing herein. But I hope you do adapt, because the plot is too good to miss out on.
Bookish Nays:
😟 While I do like chapters to be on the shorter side, they were way too short in this work. The chapters jump across various characters, and this shifting narrative perspective means I couldn’t settle in a steady listening rhythm. Also, the chapters with the podcast interview, end too abruptly. This problem will be faced mainly in the audio version as dealing with jumping narratives is easier in physical/digital copies.
😟 The problem is exacerbated by the lack of reference to the timeline. It took me a while to understand that the podcast is in the present timeframe, and Cooper’s story begins some years in the past. To add to the complication, the prologue is set in the future! I still don’t know if this future was after the events in the final chapter or sometime before. The timeline should have been clearer.
😟 The final few chapters drag just a teeny bit.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at almost 14 hours, is narrated by Gill Mills. She performs quite well, but don’t expect separate voices for the characters. While her approach doesn’t create a major problem as the story is in third person throughout, it does get confusing at times as there are so many conversations in the book. Moreover, the lack of timeline references also generates a feeling of disorientation. Then again, the writing style works better on audio, so if you think you might get bothered by the short sentences and repetitive dialogues, audio is the way to go.
All in all, despite my ambivalence about the writing approach, I loved the plot and the characters, and this ensured a much-more-than-satisfactory experience. If you are looking for an unusual character-oriented love story with relatable characters, this might work wonderfully for you. Don’t be unnerved by seeing the page count of 572. The extended length is primarily due to the writing and formatting style. The book is quite quick, and the number of key characters also stays limited to the essential required.
My thanks to Love Books Tours and author Paul Indigo for a complimentary audio copy of “Love Deleted”, and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
The book is available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
A Free Add-On:
There’s a companion novelette to this book. Titled ‘The Letter’, this novelette is available for download through the author’s website. This story is set within the events of this book, though it works as a standalone. It focusses on Dr. Applegate, one of the doctors behind the medical procedure undergone by Cooper. While it is better to read this novelette after you complete the novel, it serves as a great way of sampling the writing style. I liked this little story as well, but wish it had had a greater connection with ‘Love Deleted’. 3.5 stars for this story. This rating doesn’t impact my review of the main novel.
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Blurb:
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO ERASE YOUR LOVE?
This is an impossible love story…
Cooper came home unexpectedly early that day. The day her world collapsed. The day she heard things she shouldn’t have. Saw things she shouldn’t have.
Now Cooper is running away. Driving recklessly. Blindly. A broken heart spiraling out of control after witnessing an earth-shattering scene.
Then Cooper discovers the website. Speaks to the doctors. Can they help her? Can they can give her the treatment she desperately wants? Yes they can. They can do something mind-blowing.
They can surgically erase her love for her husband Jethro.
Only what appears to be the perfect solution sets off a devastating chain of events not only for Jethro and herself. But one also involving their teenage son Daniel in ways she can’t imagine.
A life-shattering moment. A rash decision. An easy solution. This isn’t just a love story. Not when a heart isn’t just broken, it is irreversibly silenced.
This is an impossible love story.
*Amazingly, this novel was inspired by the latest in genuine, cutting-edge medical technology.
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Author Paul Indigo:
or the first paragraph...
or the first sentence...
Well! All the better.
I worked in the television industry for many years. However, though I’ve worked with words all my life, I’ve only recently decided to do something with it. My humble aim is to try to produce - if I'm very lucky - my own version of what I consider a page-turner.
I love interesting tidbits... such as that it takes 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey. Or that babies are born bacteria-free. Or that there's a Statue of Liberty in Paris!
I live on the coast of England and love sea and nature reserve walks whenever I get the opportunity (at least once a week, sometimes more). I also like to wake early to enjoy the world before it wakes to catch up with me.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulindigoauthor
Website: https://paulindigo.com/
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Check out this book:
Buy Link (USA): https://www.amazon.com/Love-Deleted-Paul-Indigo/dp/1739297318/
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This has been a stop on the #LoveDeleted blog tour conducted by Love Books Tours. (@lovebookstours on Twitter and Instagram.) Thanks for stopping by!
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