Brought to you by OBS staffer Karolina_Avalon

Summary

The Blurb:

It’s the age-old tale:
Boy meets girl.
Boy stalks girl.
Girl already has a stalker.
Boy becomes her stalker-stalker.

We’ve seen it all before, many times, but this time it’s different. If only slightly.

When Gomez Porter becomes a test subject in an experimental drug trial, he is asked to keep track of any strange experiences through a blog. What Gomez isn’t ready for, is so many of his experiences suddenly seeming strange; the antiques dealer trying to buy his old tax papers, the phone-sex salesman who hounds him day and night, the super sexy research assistant who falls for him but is unable to express herself in terms outside the realm of science.

But when one of the trial participants turns up dead and another goes missing, Gomez begins to fear for his life. No longer sure who he can trust and which of his experiences are real and which merely drug induced delusions, he decides it’s time to go underground and work out a devious plan.

Now, years later, his blogs have been recovered from a defunct server. For the first time we can find out firsthand what happened to Gomez as he takes us on a wild ride of discovery.
Oh yeah, and there’s also a nurse with big boobs! (from NoHopeForGomez.com)

Review

A “wild ride of discovery” indeed! No Hope for Gomez! is a wonderfully witty, tongue-in-cheek look at people’s perceptions of life. Through Gomez’s blogs, the reader is pulled into his life of wacky characters and wackier situations. Gomez himself, although a seemingly normal guy – appears to live a few steps ahead of everyone else in his life, and has to wait for people  to catch up to him. Gomez and Graham Parke  create a flowing social commentary on today’s society, the trials and tribulations of writing, and of course, impart some wisdom on the age old art of love. Along with this, there is also an intriguing maybe- murder- maybe-not plot point running through the book, where Gomez is a test subject of a drug trail, and the reader spends the majority of the book wondering if what Gomez is seeing and experiencing is real or part of the side affects of the drugs. As well as Gomez, there’s a wannabe writer neighbour (Warren Baxter) who boils salamanders on his balcony at night and appears to write some kind of fantasy novelettes that span for thousands of pages; A guy in a sombrero, suit and sandals who has a fascination with old tax returns; and an old, neurotic shop assistant who likes to sweep floors. And, yes, ‘a nurse with big boobs’.

Although not purely scifi fantasy, this book has enough in it to keep you guessing what’s real and what is fantasy (if anything) throughout, and is a thoroughly entertaining read.

OBS is lucky enough to have been able to grab a few minutes of Graham Parke’s time and you can check out the interview here!

And, in even more exciting news (sorry, Graham!) OBS has also managed to get their hands (graciously uncovered by Graham) on the first ever interview done by  Warren Baxter, self-proclaimed literary genius featured in the semi-biographical novel; No Hope for Gomez! Stay tuned!