Quits Book 2: Devils Wild Child Publishing

Quits Book 2: Devils was chosen by two reviewers. Second review due shortly.

REVIEWED BY:

SCORE:

Author: M.E Ellis
Publisher: Wild Child Publishing

REVIEW:

Having reviewed All About Brenda, I went and purchased Pervalism and Quits, Book 1, Demons. As Quits 1 had already been reviewed, I was glad to see Quits 2 in the blurb bank and opted to review it.

Wayne’s back and, though not yet quite on his feet, he’s getting there. If, however, you thought him being confined to a wheelchair and lisping hopelessly would subdue him, you didn’t reckon on his feverish brain vomits. And, if at any time you think you know what’s going on during this novel, think again. (I encountered the same feelings while reading Quits 1.)

We’re first reintroduced to Wayne as he’s opening up to Jen, his new therapist at the Klinter Institute and someone he comes to idolise and rely on for his Ribena fix. He’s as contradictory as ever: sympathetic, tragic, prone to flights of fancy. In short—from what I have gleaned from her other books—a classic M.E Ellis character. He’s just as funny (maybe we shouldn’t laugh at his lisp, but it’s hilarious damn it! We can always say it’s the comic timing of the dialogue) and dizzying as in the first book. Dizzying because you’re never quite sure of things, never quite sure when his next tangential thought will smack you square in the gob. Yes, Wayne’s mind is a haunted place, his brain liable to fly off into the ether, his every thought tormented by his mother’s clichéd sayings so she hangs, like a spectre, around every mental corner.

Quits 2 follows the same format as the first book, showing Wayne’s present beside his horrible past with his mother, Mags, and his stepfather, Scott. Scott is a truly awful human being, glorying in every torment he can inflict on the young Wayne. Mags seems to me to be more complex. Though just as horrible as Scott, there is something deeply tragic in her, like there was once some potential for her to love Wayne which is now lost. Something, at some point, has eaten her soul. We never quite see it, but we feel it.

We follow Wayne as he explores his past, trying to rid himself of his devils, to let Scott die in his mind and crumble into dust so he can get on with his own life. But are the hurts too raw? Was Wayne’s childhood simply too appalling to come to terms with? How can he go on living with its burden? These questions and more will be swilling round your head at the end, evidence of the book’s social pertinence.

A redemptive thread weaves throughout Quits 2. Its subtitle is Devils, after all. These devils are metaphoric, haunting Wayne’s mind, and also literal, haunting his past, not to mention his present. There are angels too, every so often. But you’ll have to read it to find out about all that. It’s a shame I can’t reveal more because the end ties things up and in a way that makes the story’s most poignant and relevant point about Wayne’s situation. But doing that would do the book and its potential readers a disservice.

It’s difficult to know exactly what Quits 2 is. It’s not horror, although at times it’s horrible. It’s definitely psychological, but that doesn’t quite sum it up totally. It’s a fantasy at times, but at others all too real. Like many worthwhile things it simply can’t be categorised, and I can think of no greater praise.