The Ninja Reader

So... "The Art of Love".This is another one of my experiments in NA, and wouldn't you know it, I got an ARC from the author. I'm beginning to see a pattern here.Anyways, disclaimer: I know the author, and she sent me her book to check out. Take it as you like.Marina is a girl who has been abused by her father all her life. After one particularly gruesome night, she gathers the courage to run away - only to end up in New York with barely a penny to her name. Starved and homeless, she wanders into an art show for the free food and meets Fitz. He's a handsome performance artist who adopts her into his group of friends and, once he learns of her predicament, takes it upon himself to save her. Shenanigans ensue and, during the course of the whole thing, Marina and Fitz start to fall in lust.One thing I like about this book, it's very, very clear about the difference between lust and love. It doesn't just go "Oh, we kinda like each other but we don't know if it's love", it adresses the question directly. Too often, we see the main characters in a novel fall in love almost at first sight, with neary a hitch or an argument to interrupt the course of perfect happiness."The Art of Love" doesn't do that. In fact, it adamantly states, several times over, that instant lust does not equal love, and expecting both partners to agree on that or even reciprocate is not cool, bro. I liked that about the book, and I liked how we didn't get a concrete ending that validates but a single side of the debate.Then, of course, there was the quirky cast of characters: Derek, Fitz's half-brother, the "stereotypically gay man" who "wears the label with pride"; Viridian, the ex/make-up fairy/artist who gets sidelined; Fitz, who apparently has an allergy to clothes; and even Marina, our clueless Washington girl who, once her feathers are ruffled, shows a spunky character which was pretty refreshing.In fact, Marina's determination to overcome a lifetime of abuse is one of the best points of the novel. Often, in writing, you'd see the author pull the "Dark past" card, to lend their characters depth and add more substance to the novel, only to reduce a serious topic to a bullet point in their checklist. Not so much here: Marina's past is ever-present, but the fact that she doesn't want to let it rule her shows a strength of character that we really need to see more of in novels.Not only that, she works on establishing an identity seperate from the men in her life, both her father and Fitz. She uses her own skills, and her own interests, to build a platform for herself and discover her identity. Like "Unteachable" this is a novel around a theme, and here, it's modern art. Performance art, design, drag - all of it is mixed in nicely and you can easily see that Anne knows her shit. In fact, when I checked out her blog, I was pleasantly surprised to discover all the ways in which this book pays homage to modern art. It's a love letter to a movement as well as a story about identity, and I'm glad that Anne drew attention to how interests help a person define themselves.That said, one thing that majorly stopped me from enjoying this was the fact that, for all of its realism, it omitted one simple question: Why don't Fitz and co take Marina to a women's shelter? Or hell, even arrange for her to see a lawyer? I realise that this would have probably resulted in a completely different story, but still, it deserved mention at the very least, if not a full-on discussion. Also, I'm just a wee bit beefed that Fitz's father didn't get more fleshing out. Considering his relationship to his son plays a vital part in Fitz's story arc, I would have liked to see more of him (I actually had this theory that he was the guy who paid for Marina's train ticket.)Oh, well.Overall, this is an intelligent and passionate story, one that is equal measures about the love and sexytimes and discovering yourself. Looking forward to Derek's story.