Apologies Not Included

by Angela S. Choi, Adrian Weber (Editor), Ben Springer (Illustrator)

Eighteen-year-old Abigail Lin is smart, talented, and utterly miserable. Her everyday life is scarred by a crippling and secret compulsion. But Abigail is not alone in her unhappiness among the best and brightest. Her classmates Sophia Santos and David Wendler have demons of their own. Sophia is lost halfway between wakefulness and sleep, while David wrestles with a food addiction and a lethal erotic obsession. Except the handsome, privileged, and successful Ethan Lambert seems to have it all - until his behavior takes a bizarre and disturbing turn. Disillusioned and disappointed, these four students are drawn together just as their lives are about to spiral out of control. Will their friendship be enough to guide them through the turbulence of their college years? Or will they succumb to the pressures and neuroses that threaten their sanity and their very lives?

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2011

Reviews

[Megs ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angela S. Choi is a great author, and I really hope she continues to write. I hope she someday gets the recognition I feel she is due, too!

Her books are dark comedy, and usually remind me of the writing for the T.V. series Dexter. I bet she is a fan!

Anyway, she usually has a character that is doing horrible things all throughout her book. She always makes you think that they are getting away with it, too until she throws a curve-ball at you and you are like WTF just happened? They got what was coming to them!

Her heroines are always smart, snarky girls that drip with sarcasm and insecurity. I love her books!

[Alachia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe I'm just dark but I found this book extremely refreshing. I loved that it gave us perspectives from the four main characters which works in a novel this short, I think.

It's nice to see authors really understanding the pace of language that flows from our common tongue these days. Most authors who try this are just mimicking, in the case of Angela Choi, it's pretty obvious she speaks our language on a daily basis.

It's simply a good story made better because of how she uses the four characters to really poke and prod out our own psychosis. I felt all the bits of coldness, perversion, and craziness as those four people.

The book is described as a dark comedy by some but the funny bits really only come from the absurdity of realizing how much of her story is reality. I can't wait for her next book.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

The coming-of-age story can work in almost any genre, since a story, if it is to be interesting to the reader, has to have conflict or challenges, and the coming-of-age story is all about overcoming and learning from difficulties while transitioning to the next level of maturity. Set in college, which is a natural location and time of life for this story type, I found Apologies Not Included a fun and entertaining read. The four main characters, two of whom drive the story lines that justify calling this a thriller or suspense novel, are vastly different in background and attitudes. Each has qualities both sympathetic and not, with the protagonist, Abigail, having plenty of chances to watch, experience, and learn. If you like coming-of-age stories, this is a good one.

One minor nit I had was that the college in the story had some qualities, including location, that led me to believe I know what school it was. To be fair, there are multiple colleges and universities in New Haven, CT. Maybe my guess is wrong. But the author avoids giving the school a name, referring to it as “the college” or other generic terms. Avoiding giving the name of the university she was thinking of (going so far as to not name it in her bio while mentioning she went to college in the same town) seemed silly and contrived.

**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my reading challenges this year: read a book that you started and never finished. I can’t recall why I didn’t finish this first time but this time around, I read it in a day. This book is far from politically correct which means I’m probably not supposed to like it. But I did, so 🤷🏽‍♀️. Like Hello Kitty Must Die, it was unexpected and funny and weird and I couldn’t put it down.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd time: I liked this book better this time.

1st time: when I first started reading this I immediately thought that the writing was, compared to the first book [which I thought would make a great movie] it was television.

does that make sense?

I mean the first book had such sarcastic wit and humor, but this book had its moments but fell short in my mind in taking me to a higher place than her first book. I only had one {!} moment while the first book it seemed like every page had suspense.

Is it fair to compare books? probably not. finishing a book is like breaking up with someone. then you compare your loves.

I dunno. the television comment... I thought this writing was for television. the first book was definitely movie material

[Medeia Sharif · Rating 4 out of 5]

APOLOGIES NOT INCLUDED is told in alternating POV with four characters. Abigail is initially the focus, but then you get to know her three college-age friends. Sophia relies on a Tupperware of pills and is hung up on the wrong guy. Ethan is a brilliant student, but he smells and sees things that aren’t there. David’s foot fetishism gets him into a lot of trouble. Abigail herself is switching majors, is stressed out, and pops her pimples to the point that her face is a scabby mess. This is a motley bunch. The dark humor and political incorrectness found in Choi’s first book are here, although this novel is less outlandish. This was a joy to read, although there were quite a few grammatical errors. Thankfully, the errors didn’t pull me out of this crazy story too much.

[Jason Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

This started a little slow to me, but once I got used to the four points of view it was quite interesting. Same dark humor as in Hello Kitty Must Die and well with the 99 cent price tag on the Kindle.

[Natasha Ferguson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terrible!!! I was so disappointed because Hello Kitty Must Die was such a good book and I had higher expectations from this author.

[Shell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give it 3 1/2 stars. Not as amusing as Hello Kitty Must Die, but pretty good.

[R · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a pretty terrible book. I can't think of anything good about a book that somehow made a serial killer uninteresting.

[Laura Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book, dark humor at its best