Book Review: GAP YEARS by Dave Holwill

GAP YEARS

by Dave Holwill

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU 

19-year-old Sean hasn't seen his father since he was twelve. His mother has never really explained why. An argument with her leads to his moving to the other side of the country.

Martin, his father, has his life thrown into turmoil when the son he hasn't seen in nearly eight years strolls back into his life immediately killing his dog and hospitalizing his step-daughter.

The one thing they have in common is the friendship of a girl called Rhiannon.

Over the course of one summer Sean experiences sexual awakenings from all angles, discovers the fleeting nature of friendship and learns to cope with rejection.

Martin, meanwhile, struggles to reconnect with Sean while trying to delicately turn down the increasingly inappropriate advances of a girl he sees as a surrogate daughter and keep a struggling marriage alive.

Gap Years is an exploration of what it means to be a man in the 21st Century seen from two very different perspectives – neatly hidden inside a funny story about bicycles, guitars, and unrequited love.


My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I would rather be in the same place as she is than not – I think that's the very definition of romantic love. Or stalking.

I am being taken over by some kind of unaccustomed machismo, I can almost feel the testosterone waking up from its long sleep, trying to remember what to do.

I am a product of my upbringing. I grew up in Devon in the 1970s, where diversity was something to do with crop rotation.

Luckily, I am aware of my own hypochondria. When I was ten, my mum took away the old medical dictionary I found at a jumble sale after I insisted I had bubonic plague.

I trawl employment websites in search of an alternative but nothing ever seems verifiably better. The grass may always be greener on the other side, but the bridges are fiercely guarded by trolls.

'Okay, I get it,' she says. 'I won't try it on again. I can wait.' She looks slyly up at me from under thick eyelashes. 'Or maybe find myself some kind of... substitute, to tide me over.' I don't think I want to know what that means, but I'm assuming batteries.

.

 My Review:

I stumbled upon this wily author and became an instant fangirl after picking up his last wickedly clever novel, The Craft Room.  His smirk-worthy humor was again delivered with ninja-like stealth and conjured keen visuals of the outlandish and ridiculously amusing situations and scenarios the wondrously odd characters are either experiencing or imagining.  Written in a dual POV of Sean, a socially awkward, somewhat oblivious, sexually confused, and aimless nineteen-year-old male and Martin, the estranged father he had recently sought out. They had nothing in common other than DNA. The narrative was highly entertaining and uniquely engaging while generally consisting of anxious inner musings, oddly befuddled exchanges, wittily narcissistic insights, and canny observations that were rife with self-effacing humor.  All the characters were endearingly quirky train wrecks and profanely talented in the use of creative expletives.  I adored their odd allure and awaited the imminent implosion of all that combined dysfunction - my patience was duly rewarded.  I am enamored with the talented scribbler Dave Holwill and unrepentantly covet his peculiar characters, clever wordplay, and highly original vulgarities.  He has mad skills.

Empress DJ

Author Bio 

Dave Holwill was born in Guildford in 1977 and quickly decided that he preferred the Westcountry – moving to Devon in 1983 (with some input from his parents).
After an expensive (and possibly wasted) education there, he has worked variously as a postman, a framer, and a print department manager (though if you are the only person in the department then can you really be called a manager?) all whilst continuing to play in every kind of band imaginable on most instruments you can think of.
Gap Years is his third novel – following on the heels of Weekend Rockstars and The Craft Room, and he is currently working on the fourth (a folk horror set in his native mid-Devon) and a sequel to Weekend Rockstars.

Social Media Links 

https://www.facebook.com/daveholwill100

https://twitter.com/daveholwill

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584279.Dave_Holwill

https://www.instagram.com/dave_holwill/

http://davedoesntwriteanythingever.blogspot.com/

http://daveholwill.com/

Book Review: The Craft Room by Dave Holwill

The Craft Room 

by Dave Holwill

Goodreads

Amazon US / UK  / B&N

Sylvia Blackwell is tired. Her grandchildren are being kept away from her, and the expected inheritance that might finally get her middle-aged son to move out has failed to materialise – thanks to her mother's cat. It is becoming increasingly difficult to remain composed. On a romantic clifftop walk for her 47th Wedding Anniversary, an unexpected opportunity leads to a momentous decision that will irretrievably change the course of her life. 

The Craft Room is a darkly comic tale of sex, crepe paper, murder and knitting in a sleepy Devon town, with a 'truly original' premise and genuinely jaw-dropping moments. What would you do if unexpectedly freed from bondage you never knew you were in? How would your children cope? How far would you go to protect them from an uncomfortable truth? You can only push a grandmother so far...

My Rating: 

Favorite Quotes:

His back prevented him from doing any heavy lifting (though not from swinging golf clubs or working on his vintage Aston Martin) so he was acting as driver, organiser and supervisor. He decided to exercise his supervisory skills, straightened his tie in the mirror, and hopped out again to rally the team. An hour of encouraging sarcasm, withering looks and occasional shouts of 'come on!' later, the van was loaded and they headed off… He made the best of it, helping them along with encouraging remarks like, 'careful those stringy arms of yours don't come out of their sockets son,' and, 'I think your mother'll have to carry this one, it's probably a bit heavy for you.'

'It's almost funny you know,' Ron said, as the silence grew oppressive, 'we probably won't be out of debt now until one of us dies!' 'Ron!' Sylvia exclaimed, 'you shouldn't even joke about that.' She tried not to overdo her shock – in case Ron realised she had already started work on his eulogy.

Those people were incredibly dull, and refused to accept that Batman: Year One is credible literature – bloody snobs… I wanted to love that book group Frank, I have read all the Hardy Boys mysteries, did they care?

… looking at the sad, impaled remains of what to him would always be a tweedy, waist-coated, wise old friend (rather than a big, vicious bastard that would bite your hand off if you stuck it in the wrong hedge). Don was not really a country boy at heart, and his only experience with wildlife came from books and cartoons.


My Review:



This book and its main character were superbly crafty, in every sense of the word. Laced with wry wit and wickedly clever humor, this cunningly observant and insightfully written book was found treasure. I am having a hard time classifying the genre beyond literary fiction. The storylines were highly entertaining, well integrated and smartly paced. While the narrative was skillfully written and slyly amusing, the humor was dark, furtively devious, and brilliantly stealthy. The pace was slow yet pleasantly relaxing while secrets were gradually uncovered and the body count quietly ticked up.


I relished this well-honed book from start to finish. The characters were well-drawn, fascinatingly flawed, and rather loathsome, even the ones I admired or pitied the most. Yet I was captivated and my curiosity was on red button high alert. I took great delight in the author’s artful handling of the inner musings of the undetected and repressed sociopathic characteristics of Sylvia. Sylvia was the craftiest of the crafters, a dependable and stalwart community participant and longtime Sunday School teacher who had diligently plotted and schemed while she labored tirelessly to maintain her position as the reigning community queen bee for decades – until her latest entry was ranked as second place. Gasp! This painful slight seemed to signal the turning of the tide for Sylvia as her patience, and apparently, her conscience had worn thin. Soon thereafter, she seemed to be uncannily present during a series of accidental deaths. Not all of which were her fault, although she nimbly and resourcefully may have hastened them, just a bit.

Empress DJ

Author Bio 

Dave Holwill was born in Guildford in 1977 and quickly decided that he preferred the Westcountry – moving to Devon in 1983 (with some input from his parents).

After an expensive (and possibly wasted) education there, he has worked variously as a postman, a framer, and a print department manager (though if you are the only person in the department then can you really be called a manager?) all whilst continuing to play in every kind of band imaginable on most instruments you can think of.


His debut novel, Weekend Rockstars, was published in August 2016 to favourable reviews and his second The Craft Room (a very dark comedy concerning death through misadventure) came out in August 2017. He is currently in editing hell with the third.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/daveholwill100

https://twitter.com/daveholwill

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584279.Dave_Holwill

https://www.instagram.com/dave_holwill/

http://davedoesntwriteanythingever.blogspot.com/