Triangle of Doom

Gold
Chris Cleave
Fiction

When I used to work at a bookstore, everyone raved about Chris Cleave’s Little Bee. Sadly, I never got around to reading it. Now, after having read Gold, I’m glad I didn’t.

I really disliked the layout of this book. There were no chapter breaks, just section breaks with the year and location bolded. So that annoyed me right away. Also annoying? The random POV changes. What is with these authors that can’t start a new section when jumping into a different character’s head? It’s very disorienting for the reader. Then we have the actual story, which is about two lifelong friends/rivals named Kate and Zoe who are competing to see who gets to go to the 2012 Olympics. Which are actually starting in a few weeks. I found that weird, as well, reading about something that hasn’t happened yet (can you tell I’m not into futuristic stuff?)

Now let’s get to the meat of Gold. The twisted love triangle between Zoe, Kate, and Jack. In present time, Kate and Jack are married and struggling to deal with their eight-year old daughter’s cancer. Zoe, meanwhile, has stayed focus on the Olympics. She cannot lose. She just can’t. We go back and forth in time and learn the really effed-up relationship between Jack, Zoe, and Kate, who all met on the same fateful day they went to start training together for the Olympics. Needless to say, there were a lot of twists and turns between the three of them. Sometimes I like that. This is one of those times I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t like anyone except maybe Sophie, Jack and Kate’s daughter. And even she bugged me a lot with all the Stars Wars references (I don’t like Star Wars and have never even seen the movies, so I was pretty lost).

I suppose if you’re really into competitive cycling or the Olympics you might like this book. But if you’re reading it for the relationships or love story, do not pick it up.