The Opposite of Nothing by Shari Slade

The Opposite of Nothing
by Shari Slade
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
So, for anyone that follows Shari Slade on Twitter, you know there is much glitter and sparkle. I didn't see glitter in this book, but there was confetti within the first sentence! That started the awesomeness and it just kept going from there. This book was all about feelings and let me tell you, it gave me a lot of them. When I tried to start this review, all I could think about was how my shoulders were tingling and my chest felt tight through the whole story. Shari Slade has a delicious way with the emotional angst. Callie and Tayber are exquisitely tortured by their thoughts and feelings. Their journey to happily-ever-after doesn't involve pain or death; but insecurity, lack of trust, and plenty of unrequited lust.

Callie had a lot of trust issues; and along with being an introvert, that made her seem anxious and depressed most of the time. Ordinarily, I get too sad while reading depressed characters but Callie was able to open up to Tayber and she had a sort of optimistic, bright-eyed pessimism about her. Callie is so filled with wonder because Tayber pays attention to her and wants to be around her, but she'd really like to have more. So she creates an online persona to be a little sexy with him. She's so quiet and vulnerable that even online, she tends to get scared and shut down. Between her in-person persona and her on-line persona, Tayber was able to see all of who she was, even if that meant he thought he was interacting with two different people.

Tayber is more outgoing and has his pick of the college girls. But he's friends with Callie and in his mind, that's more sacred than hooking up. Because he didn't have a good home life, he tries to never want anything, but at the same time, he's sort-of narcissistic and feels like every decision someone makes is wrong if it negatively impacts him. I was glad to see him get over himself and learn to empathize. But even through the self-centeredness, he's wonderful and caring toward Callie.

Anyone who remembers what it's like to feel out of place will easily identify with these two and cheer for their relationship. This could have turned into a sad book with all the heavy feelings, but it's actually optimistic and hope-filled. Sort of a 'yes, people can be mean, but you are worthy and you can find a place to belong'. By the end of the book, both character have grown more emotionally intelligent – learning to trust people and accept that they're not the center of the universe.

There were times outside their relationship that I had trouble identifying with Callie and Tayber. I felt the getting-fall-down-drunk was a little gratuitous. I couldn't really be sure if these two were of age anyway. And seeing that I've never had a college party experience, I had trouble relating to the lure of drinking until you puke.

Also, it was hard for me to understand why neither of them thought about finding paid work before money got really tight. That probably comes from me working all through my college times, but it was hard to imagine letting yourself get to the point where you have nothing, before you start looking for a job.

But this wasn't really a find yourself story; not really a “coming of age” story like I might expect from the New Adult genre. We don't get a taste of what their goals are or even what degree they're pursuing. I look at this book as completely and totally a true-love story, which just happens to have characters in the New Adult age bracket. The sex scenes were hot and sexy, in line with what I'd expect from a modern contemporary, but not so abundant that you lose the emotional punch of these two discovering their love.

I won't lie, I really wanted more. I wanted to know more about them, more of their lives, more of what their plans were and how they were getting there. But I was also really satisfied with the story. They fit together wonderfully and you just knew how much they cared about each other. As an emotion-packed, grab-you-by-the-heart love story, this one is a must read.

I received a complementary ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.


**This review is archived on my blog: The Theory of Lieto Fine