Omorphi by
Cody Kennedy
Pages:
471
Date:
April 11, 2016
Details:
#1 Elpida / Hope
Own
/ Paperback
The
blurb:
“High
school senior Michael Sattler leads a charmed life. He’s a star athlete, has
great friends, and parents who love him just the way he is. What’s missing from
his life is a boyfriend. That’s a problem because he’s out only to his parents
and best friend. When Michael accidentally bumps into Christy Castle at school,
his life changes in ways he never imagined. Christy is Michael’s dream guy: smart,
pretty, and sexy. But nothing could have prepared Michael for what being
Christy's boyfriend would entail.
Christy needs to heal after years of abuse and knows he needs help to do it. After the death of his notorious father, he leaves his native Greece and settles in upstate New York. Alone, afraid, and left without a voice, Christy hides the myriad scars of his abuse. He desperately wants to be loved and when he meets Michael, he dares to hope that day has arrived. When one of Michael’s team-mates becomes an enemy and an abuser from Christy’s past seeks to return him to a life of slavery, only Michael and Christy's combined strength and unwavering determination can save them from the violence that threatens to destroy their future together.”
Christy needs to heal after years of abuse and knows he needs help to do it. After the death of his notorious father, he leaves his native Greece and settles in upstate New York. Alone, afraid, and left without a voice, Christy hides the myriad scars of his abuse. He desperately wants to be loved and when he meets Michael, he dares to hope that day has arrived. When one of Michael’s team-mates becomes an enemy and an abuser from Christy’s past seeks to return him to a life of slavery, only Michael and Christy's combined strength and unwavering determination can save them from the violence that threatens to destroy their future together.”
My thoughts:
I could keep this review very short and just
say: Cody Kennedy did it again; he broke my heart, showed me pictures and
thoughts I didn’t want to see or think, and managed to lift me up in the
process. Last year I read and reviewed Slaying Isidore’s Dragons and Omorphi is at least as good, as
captivating, as heartbreaking and as thought-provoking as that book was.
However, Omorphi was written and published before SID, so chronologically at
least, that statement would be wrong.
Like SID, Omorphi deals with the aftermath of a most horrific case of child
abuse. I’m not going to go into any details here, suffice to say that young
Christie has lived through ordeals that are beyond anything most of us can
imagine. But that is also the other side of the same coin, because not only has
he managed to live through the ordeal, he is now learning how to survive and
live with it in a most magnificent manner.
I’ve got to be honest and say that it was hard,
at times near impossible to read about Christie’s past. If any of the horrible
acts had been committed on the page I’m not sure I would have been able to
continue reading the story. As it is, the truth about Christie is revealed
slowly. As he learns to trust Michael, and that Michael won’t turn away from
him once he finds out what he has been forced to endure, Christie slowly
reveals ever more details about he’s been through. And, much to Christie’s
surprise, this sharing is what makes it possible for him to start processing
his past rather than just try and push it away. The most heartbreaking part of
this process for me was the fact that Christie didn’t see his past as something
that had happened to him, but something he was. The abuse had stripped away his
self, leaving him in a position where he believed that he only existed as a
vessel for others to be used, something dirty and disposable.
Despite his past and the way he views himself, Christie
was a wonderful character. As fragile as thinly blown crystal, he also has an
inner core of strength and determination he can’t recognise or acknowledge, but
draws on almost unknowingly. Christie made me smile as often as he made me cry.
His initial inability to believe that Michael would help him or give him
presents without expecting anything in return was just one of many stabs at my
heart. His mental nerve endings lie so close to the surface, his emotions are
all over the place. Or, as Michael says it:
The
rate at which Christie’s personality changed gave him mental whiplash. He was
so damn confusing.
And that brings me to Michael, our all-round
good guy. Michael doesn’t have a bad bone in his body and falls for Christie
hard and fast. But for me the best thing about Michael was that he wasn’t
perfect. Yes he was understanding, accepting and patient—everything Christie
needed in order to learn how to trust. But Michael had his moments, lost his
cool every now and again, and made mistakes. Because Michael had been lucky
enough to grow up in a world where ordeals like the one Christie had survived
didn’t seem to exist. In the hands of a lesser writer Michael might well have
ended up as a too perfect saint. Cody Kennedy presented him as a well rounded,
realistic and utterly loveable young man, filled with only the best intentions
but fallible, like all of us.
The developing relationship between Christie
and Michael was charming, beautiful and all too recognisable. Michael’s
attempts to take it slow and the resulting battle with his hormones, desires
and infatuation made me smile. It brought me back to my own teenage years when
knowing what I should or (maybe more accurately) shouldn’t be doing wasn’t
always what actually happened.
Before you think this book is almost
five-hundred pages filled with heartache and pain, let me reassure you. This
story is as much a thriller as it is a love story; it gives the reader as much
beauty as it shows the ugly side of humanity, and for every tear you may shed
there will be a smile or belly-laugh to balance things out again. Yes, Omorphi
deals with abuse and trying to forge a life out of the ruins others have reduced
you to, but it is also a story about friendship and loyalty. And best of all,
it is a story that ends with a beginning because as long as there’s hope there
is a way forward.
***
Today happens to be the release day for Thárros,
the second title in the Hope series. I haven’t read the book yet and think I’ll
give myself at least a few days to let Omorphi’s story settle before I pick it
up, but have to admit I’m already looking forward to spending more time with
Michael and Christie and their friends, if only to see Christie grow further
and get closer to the person he should have been allowed to be all his life.
About Thárros:
Θάρρος.
Thárros. Greek. Meaning courage
Courage. n. /ˈkərij/
1. The ability to do something that frightens one.
2. Strength in the face of fear, pain, or grief.
High school senior Michael Sattler leads a charmed life. Almost.He has great friends, parents who love him just the way he is, and he was a champion hurdler until someone took out his knee when they kidnapped his boyfriend. Yet, Michael is determined to make the USATF tryouts in spite of his injuries.
Christy Castle is Michael’s entire world. Healing from years of abuse, his abduction by a predator has left him hiding a new secret as he tries to start his life again. Together, Michael and Christy work to recover from their wounds in time to make prom and graduate high school. To complicate matters, Christy is astonished to learn a fellow victim from his native Greece has survived. Christy will stop at nothing to bring him to the US to keep him safe.
But the prosecution of Christy’s kidnapper looms large in their futures and the struggle to return to normal only worsens. Christy's past continues to haunt them and, when the prosecution turns ugly and Christy’s new life is torn apart, only their unrelenting courage and determination can save them from the nightmare that threatens to destroy their future together.
Read the first chapter of Tharros here:
http://ckennedyauthor.blogspot.com/p/...
Buy
links:
About the Author:
Raised on the mean streets and back lots of
Hollywood by a Yoda-look-alike grandfather, award-winning author, Cody Kennedy,
doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in, is epic awkward, and lives to perfect a
deep-seated oppositional defiance disorder. In a constant state of fascination
with the trivial, Cody contemplates such weighty questions as: If time and
space are curved, then where do all the straight people come from? When not
writing, Cody can be found taming waves on western shores, pondering the
nutritional value of sunsets, appreciating the much maligned dandelion,
unhooking guide ropes from stanchions, and marveling at all things ordinary.
Visit my blog with comments, questions, or simply share what’s on your mind.
Beautiful review.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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