- Title:
- I Have Lived Today: A Literary Coming of Age Story
- Author:
- Steven Moore
- Release:
- December 6, 2019
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrator:
- Steve Aleppo
This book is depressing. As I was listening to it, I kept finding myself thinking it was called “I Have Lived Today” because “A Series of Unfortunate Events” was already taken.
It starts out, spending a significant amount of time talking about how Tristan’s alcoholic father beats the life out of him and his mother. The mother finally bails, only to leave her son behind. He bails, discovers he has an aunt, who reveals he has a long-lost sister. Then his aunt immediately dies. He gets robbed when he has nothing, finally catches up to his mother, only for her to be raped and murdered. Nobody seems overly concerned with the murder investigation though. It’s mentioned a few times in passing but nothing ever comes of it.
While his mother was on the street, she began to do prostitution. Her first John was a guy who seemed genuinely interested in her. They made plans to meet up later, only for nothing to come of that plot thread. It added absolutely nothing to the story.
Tristan finally finds some info out about his sister, flies to New York. While there, a plot thread about a guy whose son went missing, and now he helps people find missing loved ones. Alright, some world-building. So what’s the issue? Much like everything else in this story, that goes nowhere. Tristan is informed by this man that his sister is back in Europe, where he started.
Tristan flies back to London, where he quickly meets up with his sister and they barely get to know each other. The whole book builds up to it, only to gloss over it. They opt to forgive their father and return home, only to find him dead. Everybody is nonchalant about yet another “family” member dying. Tristan discovers and reads off a note stating that his mother’s friend is his and his sister’s real father. Then it abruptly ends.
Closure? Finishing up loose plot threads? Pfffff. Nah, you listened to an 11-hour audiobook that amounted to NOTHING in the grand scheme of things. What is there to be gained from listening to this story? What’s the moral? What’s the purpose? I’m lost. I have no idea. This story was a depressing waste of time. I normally loathe reviews that are just summaries and try to avoid spoilers. But this book was so infuriating to listen to, I didn’t want to hit at or gloss over what a miserable listen it was.
I couldn’t recommend this book to anybody. The audio narration and narrator were great, as far as I can remember. I didn’t spend too much time thinking about it because I had to pause it constantly due to it being so depressing to listen to.
NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.