Paul Kwiatkowski’s new gritty and dark coming-of-age novel evokes a rave gone wrong in the '90s. And Every Day was Overcast (Black Balloon Publishing, 2013) succeeds in portraying teenage toxicity in South Florida in the worse yet most vibrant way.
[jump]The volatile narrative is carefully nestled between ugly-beautiful scrapbook photos that seamlessly construct a unique type of visual storytelling.
It recalls a more shockingly raw and substantial version of the movie Spring Breakers. The narrator’s insatiable need for love or merely a meaningful connection is enhanced by the alchemy of the pictures. One choice line: "The soft throb of trance music leaked from beneath Nicole's door, I stopped short of knocking to allow her intoxicating, feminine scent to settle into my lungs."
And Every Day was Over Cast effectively brings out vulnerability warped by drugs and misfortunes — from depersonalizing LSD trips to dealing with the devastating reality of AIDS, this delinquent memoir has it all.