Double Exposure

Brain Caswell

Cain and Chris are two very different people. One is an artist, the other feels he’s just average. Cain is living under the thumb of his domineering parents while Chris has his own artist pad. When they both follow their jobs to romance, it’s difficult to say what will happen next.

This is another Brian Caswell novel I picked up at the same time as ‘Cruisin”. Of the two, I enjoyed this one more, even if the ending left me feeling a little confused. Ok, amend that. A LOT confused.

You can feel everything happening, Caswell has captured the immediacy of everything in beautiful descriptions that don’t feel forced or unnatural.

Caswell’s character building was so strong that I couldn’t decide which of the boys was my favourite. Even with the narrative jumping around a bit, which I usually abhor, it was great. This is an example of it working well to get insight into the psyche of the chacaters.

The ending was so confused! If I had time, I would certainly read it again to work out what the hell was going on. I didn’t understand how the friend couldn’t notice, or didn’t say anything! And that the girls never suspected anything.

With it’s twists and turns, it is sort of still just another young adult love story. I enjoyed that it had some deeper themes (prostitution, stalking and the like), but overall, it was nothing outstanding apart from the descriptions and ending. Well worth reading, however make sure you leave time to read it twice! Or just pay a lot of attention as you read through the novel…