Book Review: The Locked Away Life by Drew Davies

My Rating:

 3.5⭐

Esther, a reclusive octogenarian, lives alone in her home on the hill, having shut herself away from the world after a sordid scandal wrecked her reputation and her life decades ago. Enter Bruno, an eighteen-year-old boy who Esther hires to help her figure out how to navigate “The On-Line”. Bruno, a closeted gay, is dealing with some issues of his own. Unable to come to terms with his sexual orientation, fearing rejection and ostracism, he feels that coming out would disappoint his loving family. He is happy with the extra income, as he is secretly saving to enroll in conversion therapy. 

What follows is a heartwarming friendship between two unlikely people, both of whom are trying to make sense of the changes in and around their own lives. While Bruno helps Esther to reconcile with her past, Esther encourages Bruno to embrace his present, each of them helping the other to overcome what is holding them back from living their best lives.

The story is shared through alternating perspectives of the two main characters. The pacing of the story is on the slower side. The author beautifully portrays the friendship between a lonely octogenarian and a teenage boy struggling with self-acceptance. The depiction of delicate issues such as sexual identity, aging, mental health and parent-child relationships is sensitive and thoughtful. Bruno’s confusion, his inner struggle and his inability to accept himself as he is were heartbreaking as were the stories of his fellow participants of the conversion camp he decides to attend. 

I enjoyed Esther’s present-day storyline, her feistiness, fierce independence and her dynamic with Bruno, Bruno’s father Filip and Dominic, a local boy who went to school with Bruno. Her efforts to familiarize herself with new technology lead to some some really funny moments. However, Esther’s backstory was not very well developed and is revealed to us in disjointed bits and pieces. Even though her past is of consequence to the present storyline, we never really get to know the full story, though much detail is repeated, which left me with a lot of questions. I also felt the author rushed through events in the aftermath of Bruno's experience at the camp. Though I loved the premise and the characters, the execution of the story, as a whole, left me a tad unsatisfied.

Overall, The Locked Away Life by Drew Davies is a sweet story with an interesting premise and an endearing cast of characters (minus those running the conversion camp). While the prologues (one for each of the two main characters) introduce the characters in tension-filled moments swiftly moving to an easy flowing (a bit long-drawn) narrative, the epilogues (once again, we get one for each character) wrap up both of their stories perfectly. Who doesn’t like happy endings for lovable characters? 

Many thanks to Drew Davies, Bookouture and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this beautiful story. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.