Highly recommended

Love May Fail is my fourth Matthew Quick book to devour and this book concreted my established amazement for his works.

This adult novel caters a different kind of vibe - it also a well known fact that Matthew writes great novel dealing with either damage control, existential crisis, or teenage angst. Love May Fail highlighted the stage in existential crisis where a person might feel the need to either have someone to save himself or to save someone he knows need saving.

The set of four characters with various personalities is not strange to any of Matthew's works. And it is my duty to pick my personal favorite among them. I have Leonard Peacock, Bartolomew Neil, Nanette O'Hare in my list and I can now add Chuck Bass and Portia Kane on the list.

Also, this book hits different because it feels that the target audience for this one are the adults.

And yes, I can say that I am with Portia Kane from her almost-jail-time with Ken Humes and Khaleesi to meeting Sister Maeve Smith on the plane to visiting Danielle at the Manor and knowing Chuck Bass and Tommy for the first time to searching for her high school hero Nate Vernon to finally writing her novel to experiencing the harsh reality of publishing and lastly, to making closure with Mr. Vernon.

And Mr. Vernon with his optimistic view of the world from his paper airplane lessons in HTHS to being beaten out by Edmond Atherton to adopting Albert Camus to grieving the death of his toy poodle to meeting Portia again and escaping her planned resurrection of the old Mr. Vernon and lastly, to his introduction with Portia and the high school fans of Love May Fail.

And Chuck Bass from his silent crush moments with Portia during high school to being the junkie he was on his twenties to making it through rehabilitation to meeting Danielle and his nephew, Tommy, to pumping up the Manor crowd with Chuck-Tommy tandem (Shor the Fart) to finally meeting Portia and lastly, to achieving his goal in life that is teaching elementary pupils.

And Sister Maeve Smith with her devotion to Jesus Christ, her husband. From her sudden flight to Philly to meeting the then drunk Portia on the plane and advising her to be her pen pal to writing letters for her long lost son, Nate, to battling terminal stage IV breast cancer, to making witty banter with Mother Superior aka The Crab to finally connecting the dots that Portia's high school hero is her beloved son, Nate, and lastly, to making peace with everyone and accepting the fate of her descending from the mortal world and meeting Jesus in heaven.

The story is like connect the dots but with great character development and convincing backstory that were all familiar and is always happening in real life.

When Matthew wrote:

The world is a hard place and can be hardest on the hopeful.

That's when it hit me that Love May Fail is another book that was added in my top shelf.

I am now planning to buy The Reason You're Still Alive and already have The Silver Linings Playbook on my shelf.

For now, ciao.

RATING: 4.5stars

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