Too Late (2016) comprises first person narratives – a sequence of events
from different points of view.
There are few characters. Three are key to the plot. Sloan is a 20-year-old
student living with Asa for about two years. She is supposed to represent a
strong woman, but she is wimpy and whiney in my opinion. Asa is a needy, extremely
jealous, manipulative unfaithful man madly in love with Sloan. He keeps track
of Sloan by his mobile phone GPS system. He’s a horrid character.
Carter is a student in Sloan’s class. Carter is not his real name. He tells
Sloan that he is 22, but he’s really 25 years old. His only duty is to ‘bust
the largest campus drug ring in collegiate history.’ Yes, he’s an undercover
cop.
Sloan is surprised to see Carter in Asa’s house – they are ‘doing
business.’
One day Asa’s GPS tracker notices that Sloan is not where she said she’d
be. She is with Carter.
The title, Too Late, comes from many events, and also the line: ‘It’s a
little too late to change your mind.’
Simply put, the style and characters are simple. There is no complicated
plot, so readers don’t need to think too much. The format is a little
unconventional and disjointed. There is 60% storyline and 40% epilogue (what
happens after the story). Except that the epilogue comprises a prologue (set
two years before the events take place) followed by an epilogue to the
epilogue. To have a prologue after the epilogue, and two epilogues is just too
experimental – and it’s not effective. Not my favourite book, and possibly my
least favourite, but it was free.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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