Book Review-No Hope For Gomez

By Graham Parke

Published by Outskirts Press

Released on January 12th, 2010

Source- Book from author for review

3 stars- It's a good, fun read

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, his neighbor boiling salamanders on his balcony at midnight, the super sexy lab 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 illusions, he decides it%u2019s 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 (quoted from Goodreads).

No Hope for Gomez is a fun, laugh out loud read. Graham introduces readers to his debut character in a unique way by chronicling his experiences through an experimental drug trial. Gomez is an awkward, quirky character to get to know. He's constantly trying to decipher his feelings, trying to figure out if they're truly what he feels or if they're a side effect of the drugs. This makes him more relatable in an odd sort of way. He's someone who's had little experience in the dating field, so when he finds himself falling in love with one of the doctors, he doesn't know if what he's feeling is a result from the drugs he's taking or his true feelings.

Gomez is hilarious. I loved the way in which the book is written. It's a mix of Gomez's inner monologues and his daily, detailed blog posts he's suppose to make logging everything he's done and his feeling for the day. Here's a great example of Gomez,

"Sometimes I think about messing with the researchers' minds through my blogs. I toy with the idea of blogging about some bogus experiences that will throw them off. Like suddenly developing an unhealthy attraction to clams, or finding myself able to deduce people's phone numbers from their liver spots. But then I remember how much I like Dr. Hargrove, and I end up blogging truthfully."

Mixed into Gomez's adventures being a drug rat is a crazy, fun plot that is part comedic, part mystery and a little part romance. Graham throws a twist into the plot when fellow drug participants go missing and turn up dead. It's when Gomez decides to take the investigation into his own hands do the outrageously funny characters Warren, Gomez's neighbor and Hicks, the only employee at Gomez's antique store really lighten the mood and together their characters creature a unique dynamic for the story.

No Hope for Gomez is truly a one of a kind, witty read. There is some mild language and sexual references made, making this a book I would recommend for older teens, though I feel this book is one that has a lot of cross over appeal to it.