[Review] Becoming Ted - Matt Cain

Summary: If Ted Ainsworth were to compare himself to one of the ice cream flavors made by his family’s company, famous throughout his sleepy Lancashire hometown, it might be vanilla—sweet, inoffensive, and pleasantly predictable. At forty-three, Ted is convinced there’s nothing remotely remarkable about him, except perhaps his luck in having landed handsome, charismatic Giles as a husband.

Then Giles suddenly leaves him for another man, filling his social media feed with posts about #newlove and adventure. And Ted, who has spent nearly twenty years living with, and often for, another person, must reimagine the future he has happily taken for granted.

But perhaps there is another Ted slowly blossoming now that he’s no longer in Giles’s shadow—funny, sassy, more uninhibited. Someone willing to take chances on new friendships, and even new love. Someone who’s been waiting in the wings too long, but who’s about to dust off a long-ago secret dream and overturn everyone’s expectations of him—especially his own. . . (Pub Date: Jun 04, 2024)

 

This wasn't the book for me, I think that's the best way to start this review. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think this book is aiming for a wide audience.

Ted's going through a rough patch after his husband asks for a divorce, leaving him feeling like he's always been in someone else's shadow – not just with his husband but even in his own family. He's let his sister shine while he's been stuck running the family's ice cream shop, even though he's not even a fan of ice cream. But now, things are changing, and he's waking up to it.

Looking back, this should've been a book with a universal feel. It's about reflecting on life and realizing you haven't followed your own path to happiness, but also seeing that it's not too late to change course. It's got some great messages like that.

As much as I wanted to like it, I couldn't quite get into the story. And it's not because of the characters. Ted's situation is supposed to hit close to home for a lot of folks, and he's a decent guy too. But for me, it was more about the book's style.

This was my first time reading Matt Cain, so I don't know how his books usually are. I do see he makes an effort at not repeating words, but then he seems to have a table with expressions the characters like using and will repeat them every opportunity he has. For Ted, everything was "ace". Another thing that bothered me were the flashbacks. I wonder if someone told him he needed to show more than tell and then he came up with some memories for Ted to revisit and see how wronged he's been by everyone around him. That could have worked, but those memories seemed too obvious. Why wouldn't he realize it sooner with so much happening? Regardless of how slow he could be, especially with how mean his husband was to him, those flashbacks felt lazy. Too convenient to the plot that you'd have a happening in Ted's past tailored to demonstrate every abuse he's ever suffered. And once you see this, you realize a lot of the "shows" in the present timeline are also too obvious; they're clichés. For example, he meets Oskar, who is from Poland and traumatized as he was raised to feel ashamed of being gay. I don't know any Polish people, but the way Oskar is described felt surreal, and all the time the excuse was because he's Polish. His sudden reaction later in the book, again put on Poland's tab, totally not his fault, was also so weird. It felt a tad too scripted, like the writer needed this setup for the big climax.

I do think some will identify with Ted's story. Although his conflicts were supposed to have a universal appeal, as you read you see there is an intended audience there who will be nodding, who will be seeing themselves in his memories. That wasn't me.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 2 out of 5.