First real clunker of the year:
Dark Rooms, by Lili Anolik, narrated by Eileen Stevens. I got this from the library; otherwise I'd be sorely tempted to ask for a refund.
It's a shame, because the writer clearly has some talent and the narration was good, but the story was sordid and the characters were unlikable or amoral at best, monstrous at worst. The ugly aspects weren't sensationalized, but mostly simply accepted.
Spoiler:
- Incest! Adultery! Suicide! Drugs! Sex! And angst! Lots and lots and LOTS of angst!
- Aspiring photographer finds her daughter shot in the gut, and believing she's dead, Mom runs home not to call 911, but to get her camera and take pictures first! Some of them do come out rather shaky, because Mom was crying, but she did get a good one for her upcoming exhibition. (And we'll gloss over the fact that daughter dear was only mostly dead at the time.)
- Daughter who is the product of an adulterous affair begins sleeping with the guy she doesn't know is her half brother; the daughter's biological parents know but don't say anything because the half siblings are using birth control. So, no worries!
- Girl is raped and impregnated while passed out, doesn't know who did it, but after she finds out who the guy was and he "explains"--she looked just like her dead sister, and he couldn't help himself--they eventually begin a relationship.
- Everyone seems to be using drugs (these are high school kids), but, hey, it's OK unless it's heroin.
- The whole exercise of finding out what happened to the dead girl turned out to be pointless.
Additionally the story often included flashbacks; these were interesting and enlightening at first, but later such scenes interfered with the pacing. There were also too many dreamlike/imaginary scenes. I'm really at a loss to know just what reaction the author was going for, but I doubt it was annoyance at having wasted a dozen hours.