I picked up Random by Tom Leveen because I saw a review on Jamie’s blog and so, I figured it would be a pretty quick read because she said that she had read it in one sitting. So, I was like hey I could read this in one sitting too and get this book off the pile, which is one step toward preventing floor collapse from so many books. You see, I actually worry about that for real. Anyways. Random appealed to me because the original cover has an iPhone cord looped into a noose and well, that’s really eye catching. Also, it is super short and let’s be honest, short books always appeal to me these days. Frankly though, I was mostly underwhelmed with Random.
One night main character Tori receives a random phone call from a wrong number. The caller says he is going to kill himself unless she can give him a reason to live. So, Tori stays on the line. Ironically, Tori is about to be on trial for partaking in cyberbullying that caused a boy to take his life. In fact, her facebook page is one of the exhibits for the trial. So, really, Tori is the absolute last person you should probably talk to if you want to be talked out of committing suicide. Anyways, Tori stays on the line and the story gets relatively intense as she realizes the power to save someone and to hopefully find some absolution for her sins is right in her hands and on the phone.
Honestly, I felt zero connection to Tori. She’s kind of a terrible person. Which, okay, I get, sometimes teenagers are terrible people and sometimes characters are unlikeable. I just, ugh, could not connect and thus could not care for her. I think part of this stems from my comparing Leveen’s Random with Tease by Amanda Maciel. With Tease, I thought the main character was an awful person BUT I could understand and connect with her. Not so much with Tori. So, it was sort of a chore to read a book about a character I could not summon up any energy to care about.
Finally, to make this review kind of short because the book is kind of short and I do not have much to say about it — I thought that once I finished the book that the whole premise was kind of weird. Like, there’s this big twist conclusion reveal and it comes out of nowhere and is just whacked. Like, I was disappointed and made that face kids make when they have to eat food they find to be yucky. That was my face during the end. Sure, the topic of Random is important, cyberbullying is a huge issue, but I just failed to really gel with this book.
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I have a hard time when a character is completely unlikable and horrid. I really don’t think most people are like that and it brings me out of the story.