On My Kindle: Q by Evan Mandery

Last week or so I got caught up in The Frog Princess series. As enjoyable as these magical fairy tales are they made me crave a more substantial literary tour de force. I downloaded a couple of Kindle Daily Deals but none of them struck the right chord with me.

I was poking around my daily blog reading list and I found this review of Evan Mandery's book Q via Janet Reid's blog (literary agent and Query Shark).

Fleur Fisher gave Q a glowing review. The concept of Q is compelling on its own: a man does not marry the love of his life because his future self comes back in time to tell him not to. Q's premise made me so incredibly interested as to WHY a man or woman would ever let the love of his or her life go. So whatever this future self said had to be incredibly convincing and irrevocably important.

Sidebar: this is exactly what the Query Shark tells her shark chum - ENTICE your readers (literary agents, editors and readers alike).

I downloaded a sample on my kindle and fell in love with the first chapters. I loved how the unnamed protagonist (ummm . . . I just realized I never get his name) fell in love with Q. The book is appropriately titled, "Q" because it is all about full life is with Quentina Elizabeth Deveril, Q, and how life is a gaping void without her. I was disappointed I didn't get to meet the future self before my sample came to an end. I debated about buying it because it was the author's style was a bit over the top and wordy for my normal taste. I re-read Fluer's review and she sold me on the novel  because it's a book "for both head and heart."

After reading Legend, The Frog Princess books and Chasing Amanda, I deeply needed a great literary read. Q was my prescription.

I ended up skimming certain parts that didn't feel crucial to the story. These were the sections that the author included actual parts of the protagonist's writing. I felt validated for reacting this way later because of one of the future selves.

As Mr. Mandery states in his acknowledgments, "I expect it is obvious to anyone reading this or any of my other novels that I have a heavy dose of existential angst."

No matter, I truly enjoyed Q. It is a compelling novel beautifully written.

Listening to your future selves and basing decision after decision on what they said was an interesting and occasional frustrating way to live one's life; for me and the protagonist. I kept wanting to ask - How do you KNOW this is a good idea?

If you need a great read about life and the downfalls and upsides a person experiences - go read Q.

p.s. I pleasantly surprised myself by figuring out a key plot point before it was revealed.