Too Close by R. Phoenix

I'm just about to hit submit on the finished audio for Too Close by R. Phoenix! It's a book that I've had in my possession for much longer than is normal, and I'm very excited to finally be hitting “I'm Done” on ACX's site.

It's a different kind of story than what I'm used to. Raissa contacted me about a year ago to see if I'd be interested in doing this book. I was immediately fascinated by the content and the writing, but my schedule didn't really clear up until mid-Summer. Even then, it's taken me four months to get through it completely, despite it’s being relatively short.

This is simply a powerful, personal story told in voices honest enough to realize things in real time. There's so much truth to the writing and the way that the sentences are formed, not simply stream-of-conscious but like fishing within the stream. I was attracted to this brutal honesty. First person perspective is so exceptional when it’s genuine and in this story you can feel the way the characters think.

It's not a comedy, even though its backbone is humor. It's a romance, even though a good chunk of it feels more like horror. It deals with the enigmatic perspective of trauma to both seduce and undo a person's ability to see clearly and recognize their situation. For this detail, I fell in love with the story even though I found it truly difficult to perform.

I think that you'll see that there is more than heart to this story; there's the ripped open chest and you're there bearing witness. But it seeps with love and empathy at the same time, corralling embedded truths about consent until they finally reach their characters. And most impressively, constructs this very real perspective of both abusers and the abused. It feels very real, and in that the emotional reality felt like such a slew of paths to exist within.

So, I'm excited for the release of this audiobook. I think for listeners who are willing to engage with a drama, you'll really be taken through an emotional journey. It's funny, it's sweet and it's devastating. But I think it's well worth the experience.

Just consider this a trigger warning, to know that this goes into some very intense places in the scope of abuse.