Play Book Tag discussion

This was teetering on a 3-4 star read for me until the ending. The ending pushed this over the 5 star mark for me. Despite it's outlandish reach, and it's 'not-magical-realism' I can look past the flaws, because of the emotional pull it gave me. Maybe I'm a sucker for a tear-jerker. Maybe I related to the ending scenes (view spoiler)[when Ted has to put Lily down (hide spoiler)] a little too much.

The "reveal" of the octopus happens around page 5, so there aren't any spoilers saying that this is a book about a dying dog. Why would one want to read a sad a book about a dying dog? Well, for starters it isn't supremely about her dying. It's about adventure, living life to the fullest, and about the processes of grief for the human along with her. The book profiles Ted, a 30-some gay man who is recovering from a break up, and his companion Lily. We learn that Lily has an octopus (view spoiler)[it's a tumor (hide spoiler)], and we see how Ted deals with saying goodbye. We see his denial, anger, sadness, and everything in between. Also, for being a book about a dog dying- Rowley does an excellent job of inserting humor in when it's needed most. It's a pretty funny book despite the underlying plot.

Now some of this book gets WEIRD. I read some reviews and saw that the dog talks?! WTF. This fact alone almost stopped me from reading this altogether because I strongly dislike suspended disbelief. Well, yes, Lily does "talk", and there are some really bizarre scenes of wild imagination. I think I interpreted this all quite differently than some. (view spoiler)[I think a lot of Lily talking more as in Ted's head- not actually magical realism. We all talk to our pets, and can often think of what they would say back. And the weird Sea-Adventure? I see it more of a drunk/pill induced haze. Ted seems to snap back out of it once he "wakes back up". (hide spoiler)] I didn't take the weirdness as seriously as some- which led me to enjoy this more than most.

Albeit, there were some fumbles along the way of the novel. Rowley doesn't seem to trust the reader to get some of the underlying themes- so he repeats them again and again. The author tries to remind the reader how clever he is by sneaking in references to the beginning of the novel. The Sea-part seemed to just say "look how well thought out and clever this is! I've made everything come full circle, and I'm going to tell you why It's full circle". But I can see past this due to the raw emotion the ending gave me. Do not read without tissues.

Hm, interesting. I didn't read the spoilers but now I'm curious about this book. Also, I like the cover...

Fascinating. You and I are often on the same page, Joi, so you are tempting me. I'm really wanting to read the spoilers unfortunately. I'll try to resist!

I rated this book 2 stars, it was tiresome listening to Lily's voice and the whole section on the boat was way out there. Couldn't wait for it to be over. And I love dogs.

I think this is a love-it or hate-it kind of novel. I was actually surprised at how much I liked it given the "way out there-ness" of many of its parts.

Very hard to review without spoilers.