5.10 Judgment - Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis

Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the tenth day of the month is "Judgment." I have personally decided that I will pass judgment on a book on the tenth day of each month. 

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Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis tells the story of Noelle. She meets Sam when they're both stranded on a highway during a blizzard and she goes into his truck to charge her cell phone.  They have a lovely time together, but he heads off to the airport to go back to the US while she continues on her way back home to take care of her mother and they don't exchange numbers. But then they run into each other again. And again. Obviously, they're meant to be together, right?

Interesting characters: Noelle is interesting. She's got a lot going on with a chronically ill mother, an irresponsible man-child for a brother, a comfortable if slightly mean ex-boyfriend who maybe wants to get back together with her, and an uninspiring career. She's struggling, but she still has dreams and seems pretty clear-eyed about her lot in life, her prospects, and even all the reasons her ex became her ex in the first place. 

Sam? Sam's boring. He's one-note and since the whole of the book is from Noelle's POV, all I know about him is he leads mountain climbing tours, has a bad relationship with his father, and refuses to tell Noelle what's going on with him. Oh, and he's tall and hot. I mean, relationships have been made with less, but the lack of communication in this book was a real challenge for me. 

Believable conflict: Ah. Well, this book is not believable in any real way, what with the random meetings and historical connections between the two. I didn't mind this, actually, and really liked the throughline that these two had just kept missing each other in life. However, the conflict that was born of this coincidental non-meeting was brushed aside too easily and eh. I just wasn't feeling it.

Emotional tension: This book is a bit of a love quadrangle with Noelle and Sam each sort of seeing another person. I like that the two of them were honest with each other about this. I also thought it added to the tension of the will they or won't they, but the truth is that this book was really slow and kind of boring and there was so much tension building that I ended up not really caring who ended up with who. I think some of that is because I don't get the attraction to Sam, so I kind of thought it would be better if Noelle ended up on her own, but your mileage may vary on this.

Happily ever after: I was happy for Noelle. She seems like she's in a really good place and that's good for her. I mean, these two are not a good long-term couple, but she's happy for now and maybe that's all we can hope for in life.

3/5 stars

Lines of note:

Dilly is obsessed with all things America. The food, the movies, the funky little mailboxes, and how everyone eats cobbler. (location 119)

Funky little mailboxes? Are American mailboxes unusual?

“I can’t abide short men,” she always says as if talking about an infestation of roof rats. “Spiteful little things. Malicious.” (location 370)

What?! This made me laugh.

That’s what’s unfair about breakups. They’re nearly always one-sided. One person has made their mind up way before the other. They’ve done the grieving, they’ve done the boxing away of feelings, and you—well, your feelings are still wandering around, like lost kittens, trying to find their home. (location 710)

It is interesting to think about the timing of breakups. A lot of time someone knows ahead of time what's going on, don't they? So they're more prepared and seem to bounce back better. 

The train driver speaks, muffled and deep, through the tinny speaker. He talks about the route, about the refreshments carriage and about the weather, as houses speed by in a watercolor blur, and I feel like I’m being carried away. Everything in this moment is perfect. (location 2244)

I like when authors take the time to examine when someone is feeling joy and how that translates to looking at everyday objects and experiences. Also the phrase "watercolor blur" may make it into my regular lexicon. 

I wish things were simple. I wish I wasn’t me. I wish I wasn’t so confused, and I wish I didn’t feel so scared. To live. Because I am I think. I’m afraid to live too loudly. (location 2399)

Don't we all wish those things all the time?

Things I looked up:

Tizer (location 130) - a red-colored, citrus-flavored soft drink sold in the UK

Lucozade (location 861) - A British brand of soft drink (energy drink?)

Moomin (location 1066) - Japanese anime TV series

intercalation (location 1501) - to insert (something, such as a day) in a calendar or to insert or position between or among existing elements or layers