Omorphi, C. Kennedy

Omorphi 1Rating: 2 Stars

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Genre: Gay Young Adult

Tags: Abuse, Androgyny, First Love, Melodrama+

Length:  178,000 Words

Reviewer: Kazza K

Purchase At: Harmony Ink Press, amazon.com

 

**CONTAINS A FEW SPOILERS**

 

 

The beginning of Omorphi starts in Greece with a barely alive young male being found in the house of a wealthy, connected paedophile. Someone the police have been after for a decade but whose influence has always kept him above the law. Now the book skips forward nine months and that young man, Christy, is living at Wellington Ranch, an up-market facility for abused children headed up by a psychiatrist, Dr Rob Villereal. Christy is nineteen and he made the decision that he wanted to move to America away from those involved. To get better treatment. He attends school but he doesn’t go anywhere else.  He is fascinated with Michael Sattler, a boy he literally bumped into at school and picks up that (perhaps) he is also gay.

Michael Sattler is an eighteen year old boy from a middle class family in upstate New York. His dad is a paediatrician, his mother a nurse. Mac and Bobbie Sattler know their son is gay and they are fine with that.  His best friend, Jake Santini, also knows. Michael and Jake are close, they are on the track team for their school – Jake runs the 110 hurdles and Jake the 800 metres.  Michael is also the team captain. Oh, and their parents have been friends since childhood. Michael likes pretty males. Androgynous males. He has a major crush on Andre Pejic and just can’t seem to find someone that lives up to that waif-like, androgynous, pretty dream, until he literally bumps into a new boy at school one day. He really wants to be in a relationship and he wants it to be with someone special, someone pretty. Months later he notices the guy he bumped into high up in the bleachers watching him at training. He knows the guys name is Christy but not much else. Michael likes Christy’s long blonde hair and that he is petite, short, and pretty – everything Michael finds aesthetically pleasing. 

Michael takes a chance on talking to the mysterious and pretty blonde. The problem is, it’s not so easy as the young man is mute. Christy communicates via a note pad, which he always keeps with him. They “talk” a bit and share a kiss in the bleachers. From here they start seeing each other.

Obviously Christy is emotionally and physically damaged. It takes a while to get to the things that Christy has suffered. He keeps things closed away and gets angry if there is any hint or discussion about his past. But Michael wants to know how to deal with Christy, as more than a few times he sets him off. He asks Dr Villareal but all he can really do is give generic information about abused children/teens. This is frustrating for Michael as he needs to know what to do and he would like to know more about Christy, but respects his privacy –

Christy would feel betrayed if Michael tried to find out what happened to him. Yet, after this afternoon and Rob’s non-answers, he felt powerless to help Christy. And what would Christy do if he accidentally did something to trigger some horrible memory? Would Christy do something extreme, or would he just fall apart? He drummed his fingers on his thigh; then closed is laptop. Christy would tell him when he was ready. He’d be patient and pray like hell that he didn’t make a mistake.  

This is the (very) basic outline of the story. It is also important to note that there is a track team member, Jason Whitman, who is s bully, likes to be inappropriate and give the ‘fags’ a rough time. He has been grabbing Christy and Stephen, a fellow track team member, and when Michael steps in, Jason becomes violent. Along with some other information, this triggers a series of dramas that sadly run amok throughout the book. 

To add to the cast of characters that start to pop up, and there are a few, Christy has a female cousin, who just happens to be a supermodel – Sophia Antoniou – and he organises a double date for himself and Michael and Jake and Sophia. This continues to add to their circle of closeness – here I will add that the heterosexual Jake and the gay Michael “choke the chicken” together, even when Michael is in a relationship with Christy.

Meanwhile, one of Christy’s abusers has been bailed and has entered America, so there are concerns for Christy’s wellbeing. Christy has not been in a fit state to testify and the ringleader has died but others are still on the loose.

 

Some things that did not work for me –

Characterisations: I had problems with all of the characters, and for several reasons. Some are as follows –

Michael is way too patient for an eighteen year old. He also behaves like a classic rescuer, and yet there is nothing in his life that would fit the profile of one – he comes from a middle class family, has supportive, loving parents, has good friends, people by and large like him, he relates well to others and others to him. He is the captain of his track team. His life is good – he has no issues – and yet, at eighteen, he takes on this very damaged young man for the simple fact that he is pretty and needs him.

Michael suddenly becomes a font of knowledge on psychology. Initially he is angry and frustrated that someone won’t give him information to help him with Christy and he is clueless what to do. It is stated on many occasions that Michael is unaware. Then, suddenly, he knows more than the psychiatrist – 

Okay, the rule is, if you’re uncomfortable in any way, doesn’t matter how small, then the touch is bad, and that person can’t touch you that way. Ever. That’s the rule.”

Christy quickly scribbled. Never?

“Never. You’re in control.” 

I have nothing against the psychology itself. It is absolutely sound. I have an issue with the delivery and the sudden upgrading of unaware Michael’s psychological skillset in dealing with Christy. This information would have been much more feasible being delivered by Dr Villereal.

Another issue is with Dr Villereal and his psychiatric credibility at times. Christy becomes distressed one afternoon and starts to run off when at Wellington. Michael goes to grab him, to restrain him from leaving. Dr Villereal tells him to let Christy go, he’ll be okay. Just…No! The boy has been abused, he is at extreme risk of self-harm and yet the psychiatrist is quite okay for him to be let go. He runs off.  I won’t go into the stats of teen male suicides, let alone someone who has suffered abuse from pre teen years on. No psychiatrist would be okay with a teen under his care doing this, but I do not know of any psychiatrist who would run this establishment as Dr Villareal does.  

That Jake is so keen on marriage. That his parents – his father a preeminent lawyer – would want their eighteen year old son marrying at such a young age defies logic. That within days he is engaged to Sophia is mind boggling.  

I believe one of the biggest failings of Omorphi is that it is not from Christy’s perspective. Omorphi would have worked more if it had been written from Christy’s POV as it was incredibly hard to feel a connect with him – particularly given Michael is the primary voice of the book. Things like Christy kissing Stephen and being upset are not handled well enough because it is seen solely from Michael’s perspective, and his reaction is off.

I was glad that Michael’s father finally had some reservations regarding his son’s relationship with Christy. It is a natural reaction for a parent to worry, especially  given Christy’s past and given the years that it would take, if ever, to heal this young man.

Jake and Michael made much more sense from a relationship perspective than Christy and Michael. They are close, on the same track team, and all but complete each other’s sentences. But I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters to be honest. The book never stopped jumping from one melodramatic event to another long enough for me to be invested in a relationship that was not fully realised. 

Bobbie, Michaels mother, asks boundary-invading questions about her son’s sex life. She even rings Michael and asks if they – Christy and Michael – are having sex. I am here to tell you that I am a very broad minded mother but I do not cross the boundaries that Bobbie Sattler does –

The phone rang again. “Crap,” he whispered into the pillow.

“It is probably your mother wanting to know if we are having sex.”

(That alone is worrying. Bobbie is limitless with some bizarre behaviour that Michael’s boyfriend knows why she is likely ringing.)

Michael laughed softly. “If she asks, I’m going to tell her the truth.” He rolled off Christy and dug through his jeans pockets until he found the phone. “Yeah?”

“You sound out of breath. Are you still at practice?”

“Hi, Mom. No, got done with practice an hour ago.”

“What are you doing?” Long beat. Michael could almost feel her eyes narrow on him over the phone. “Are you and Christy having sex?”

These boys are eighteen and nineteen. Heck, if the Sattlers are okay with their son dating a boy with high profile paedophiles after him and a deranged school bully gone way OTT then I’m here to tell them that sex is the least of their worries in regards to their son.

There is nothing in this very long book that ever lets the reader truly, at an emotional level, know why Michael and Christy are in a relationship outside of the superficial because Jason was running around blowing things up, shooting people, throwing Molotov cocktails, more bullies were thrown into the mix. Then there was a hospital staff manager who popped up and was a stereotypical redneck who would never be allowed in that position. Michael tells the reader that Christy is brave and a survivor and forgiving, but there is nothing that shows the readers these qualities, other than Christy is still alive and in America after his abuse. I’m not denying that is a good thing, that he is alive, but I needed substance. Christy had to be carried or held on far too many occasions. The problem also is that Christy refused to work with Dr Villereal, which is interesting as that was one way Dr Villereal was to establish if Christy was ready for school. Yet past the half way mark you find out that Christy is not taking part in any therapy, yet he’s in school. So how did Dr Villareal come to the conclusion that Christy was ready?

The prose was too old and had me shaking my head at times – 

Michael shot up in bed. Terror cloaked him, assaulting his senses like a ferocious miasma.

This forms part of Jake’s explanation of what Michael wants in a guy –  

“Be easy, bro. I see what you check out, so let’s see if I have the 411..”

Then in the same sentence moves on to –

“…You like quality. It’s hard to explain. It’s like lace. You don’t want a replica like the machine made stuff you find in the store, but lace tattered by hand over time….”

I find it impossible to believe that a young man would describe a relationship of his friend like lace tattered over time.  I cannot buy into young eighteen year old males thinking this way, talking this way. The skip from hey, bro to discussing lace. Not to mention Poe and his illustrator, Proverbs, Oedipus Rex and the different variations on a theme of Humpty Dumpty…and the years they came out. There is a lot more, including an eighteen old Michael explaining to the gifted and accelerated Dr Rob Villereal what onomatopoeic means.  

The other HUGE issue for me is this. What was Michael and Christy’s core relationship based on? I’m stumped. 6oo+ pages and I can’t tell you…except for this very small, superficial montage –  

 Christy caught Michael staring and flushed a light rose.

“Sorry, you’re just so…pretty.” 

——-

Following Christy’s lead, he gathered his courage and dared to unbutton the top button of Christy’s jeans and reveal the pink lace beneath. The underwear was sheer and fine and looked expensive. Michael ran a fingertip along the edge where lace met skin and decided that Christy looked sexy as hell in pink lace. Heat rose in his veins and his breath quickened as he raised his gaze to meet Christy’s once again.

“Very pretty,” Michael breathed…. 

—-

“His name is Christy.”

“What kind of a name is that?”

“A pretty one.”

“He’s weird.”

“He’s pretty.”

—-

Man, even his hands are pretty.

——–

Cute,” Jake said.

“Pretty,” Michael corrected.

——–

Michael bent and whispered, “You have the prettiest eyes in the world.”

——-

Something bad had happened to his pretty Christy.  

——

He reclined the chair and drifted off, holding his pretty Christy in his arms.

——

Whoa. If Christy wore makeup, he’d be as pretty as his cousin is and …as pretty as Andrej is. And the idea appealed to Michael. A lot. He tried to push the images from his mind, but they lingered 

I had problems with stereotyping. Little guys are bottoms. Bigger guys are tops. Lisa is the big toothy lesbian built like a wrestler. And then there is this – 

“Stephen made a hilarious request of me after practice.”

“What’s that?”

“He wanted to know if I knew any other gay boys. He wants me to hook him up.” 

Christy started to laugh and coughed.

Michael rubbed his back as he calmed. “Look at that, Jake. You’ve become Cupid to the homos.”

——

Jake barked a laugh and shook his head. “I’m your BFF, man but you slay me with that queer talk.”

Then we go to something that I cannot forgive. No one, and I do mean no one, would use this as a means of empathising with a friend, with anyone. Michael is feeling sorry for Noah, a friend who has been harassed for associating with Michael and Christy and by association he is also pegged as gay. Michael thinks the following –

Noah looked at him, and Michael saw despair in his eyes. The raw hopelessness of the condemned homo-queer-fag-butt-pirate-fudge-packer.

This one sentence. The idea that this could be seen as empathetic or correct to use in a book just offends the hell out of this reader/reviewer. NEVER in my life have I EVER thought this way about anyone. I grew up  with a trans m-t-f in my life, friends who are gay, a friend who was one of the first to die in my country of HIV/AIDS, and never once did something like this cross my mind. Poor homo-queer-fag-butt-pirate-fudge-packers. That is not empathy. That is disgusting word choices. To have a young male main character  thinking this as a supposed sign of support makes me incredibly angry.

This book needed to be cut down in length. A book of this size needs to be spectacular to keep readers reading.  

 

What worked for me –

That something so ambitious was tackled and the thought behind it – to want to help the abused teens out there.  The author’s note.

The concept and premise were good. Something more than jock/nerd.

The sex scenes were tasteful and age appropriate and never gratuitous or overdone.

Some of the writing was nice. I will go back to good touch bad touch, it is good information or children to know and understand.

 

Overall – 

I wanted so much to like Omorphi. If you look at Greedy Bug Book Reviews you will see I supported this book wholeheartedly. I promoted it and championed it. I have read Safe and Fairy by Cody Kennedy and they have been given 4 and 5 star reviews by me for good reason.  Fairy has a lovely lead named Quinn who makes Rick feel safe when living in the shadow of bullying and I know it has a following because there is a good message at its heart. I liked the message that the author was trying to get out with Omorphi. But it fell flat. It got lost. I have worked with abuse in excess of twenty years, so I am right behind anything that can support or uplift. Sadly, this book was derailed by Keystone Cop situations. A lot of telling, not showing, and characters who were one dimensional. It took a serious subject and lost the depth of meaning along the way. It also used derogatory terms for gay males and used a tone that I did not appreciate. There is no resolution by the book’s end, I felt there was nothing affirming that really happened for Christy. All that happened was Christy got a boyfriend. There is a sequel. I hope that Cody Kennedy can get back on track with the next book and that the subject of abuse can be clearly outlined and dealt with. Unfortunately, I cannot give this book any more than 2 stars.

 

 

 

 



8
Leave a Reply

avatar
4 Comment threads
4 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
5 Comment authors
kazzakPandorashMarieblazeCindi Recent comment authors
  Subscribe  
newest oldest
Notify of
Cindi
Admin

This completely covers my own issues with the book. Granted, I’ve only gotten through half but every single thing you mentioned I agree with. I really wish it would have been told in Christy’s POV and not Michael’s. I really wanted inside Christy’s head.

Great review, Kazza.

blaze
Guest
blaze

I don’t like the words that are used about gay guys. I have had them used against me and I don’t like it. 600 pages?

Marie
Guest
Marie

Do you have some sort of psychological training that would allow you to make statements as to what type of classic profile fits one character or another?

Pandorash
Guest
Pandorash

Finally an honest and refreshing review! I have felt like I’m taking crazy pills with the amount of gushing, nonsensical reviews that can’t seem to back up their praise with actual content from the book! Well done KazzaK and the team at On Top Down Under.