Lorie Yauney's debut novel, Corbin's Basement, is an entertaining rollercoaster ride through a world of suffering. I never would have imagined that reading a few serial murderer might be such a lot fun.
The novel opens when Peyton Alexander moves to Atlanta from South Dakota to require on a replacement position as HR Director for a corporation named Blast. There she meets a young customer service representative, Corbin, whom she immediately falls for. Peyton wants to stay things professional, so initially she tries to avoid Corbin, but eventually, she agrees to travel out for pizza with him and shortly they're an item. However, Corbin features a secret-he is missing a thumb, and Peyton wants to understand why.
Meanwhile, Corbin's ally , the nerdy Spencer, is jealous that Corbin is spending such a lot time with Peyton when he should be helping him build a toy train scene to win a contest. Spencer has never had luck with women, so he decides to require out his frustration on Peyton, digging into her past for tactics to bring her down so Corbin will see what she is basically like and dump her.
As the novel progresses, Yauney takes us back and forth between present-day events and her characters' backstories. We see dramatic office politics playing out amid a background of traumatic childhoods and deep, dark secrets that the characters feel too susceptible to share with each other-at least initially .
Most traumatic of all is Corbin's childhood. His mother Jessica had gotten pregnant by a would-be rodeo star, the millionaire playboy Franklin Eastman. Franklin wanted nothing to try to to with Jessica once he realized she was pregnant. Jessica considered having an abortion but decided against it, only to feel once Corbin was born that he had ruined her life. Corbin's childhood was one among neglect and seeing his mother's successive boyfriends use and abuse her. His only friend was the owner of the diner where his mother worked, and even that friendship was destined to disintegrate . During this dysfunctional childhood, Corbin also lost his thumb-an event that might have a devastating impact on the adult he became.
Once grown up, Corbin wanted to develop a relationship together with his father, but his father still refused to be involved. Now, while Corbin and Peyton try to work out their relationship and Spencer is trying to interrupt them up, Franklin reenters the image , adding to the string of volatile situations as he tries to seek out out whether Corbin has an equivalent unnatural propensities he has.
To say far more would spoil all the fun for the reader. For a debut novel, Yauney shows herself already a master at weaving together multiple plots to stay readers constantly entertained; i used to be often on the sting of my seat as I waited to ascertain whether Peyton and Corbin's love could help them surmount all odds. Yauney's characters are well-rounded and gain our sympathies despite how they, at times, repel us. Despite their idiosyncrasies, they're believable and that we find ourselves sympathizing with and cheering for them, even once they are at odds with each other . better of all, we're kept guessing what is going to happen until the ultimate page.
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