Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley, published by Random House Canada
We can all get caught up in our creative or professional endeavours. It can blind us to what’s going on around us, to our relationships, to our decisions. I don’t know about you, but once my mind is set on something, it’s hard to turn me away from it.
So it was refreshing to see this shown in a way that both identifies and gives a little casual tsk tsk. Bryan Lee O’Malley is very good at creating characters who are stuck between childhood and adulthood. They are selfish, driven (but maybe not in the best ways), hilariously absent-minded and smart when they want to be. You don’t know if you love them or hate them.
Katie is a restaurant owner, and she wants to own another one. But the one she wants is a money pit, not ready on deadline, a huge source of stress and the cause of a break-up with a guy who has a charming smile. So sometimes she questions her decisions. Valid. But unlike in real life, the old house in which her first restaurant resides, Seconds, has found a way to provide her with some “relief” in the form of magic mushrooms. (Note: the mushrooms are not necessarily viewed as drugs in this book, DAD.) She gets a second chance to fix an accident. And then another. And another. And another…
Along the way, Katie gets served more lessons. Try harder. Make friends. The importance between romance and personal goals. Listen to and consider others. “There are things we can’t change.” Each one destroys her, and Seconds, more than the next.
While I liked reading all these messages, I found none of them went too deep. The friendship between Katie and Hazel (a waitress at Seconds) that somehow ignores the rewinding Katie does is cute, but skims the surface. It felt like after a while, the rewinding was more important than explaining how things worked once it happened. So at one point, she wills someone to go away, but the notebook they were holding was still there once they’re back in time. Perhaps this is part of showing how the more things fall apart, the easier it is for Katie to try to make the same mistake to change them. She has the mushrooms, so why not use them? Because the house spirit, Lis, who keeps warning her of the dangers, that’s why. (Cue me singing “Revisions, revisions, revisions, revisions” to the tune of “Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace.”)
It was a long wait for the successor to the cult-popular Scott Pilgrim series. I feel like perhaps my excitement let me down a bit because I wanted more out of it. (Sound familiar?) But this is the Katie show and we’re all watching it. It’s pretty straightforward.
I liked how Bryan peppered the books with cute references (“BREAD MAKES YOU FAT?”) and wide-eyed action panels, and I liked how Katie would answer to the narration. Bryan’s a very good writer and has a pretty clear vision, so reading anything by him is entertaining. I’m really interested to see what he comes up with next.