Novel Review: Gold - Chris Cleave

Gold by Chris Cleave
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Title: Gold
Author: Chris Cleave
Publisher: Sceptre
Pages: 448 pages
Published: January 2013 (first published July 2012)

Gold follows the story of Kate and Zoe, 2 best friends and rival at cycling sport. They have 13 years of friendship full of laugh, tear, betrayal, and glory.

With 2012 London Olympic in front of them, both Kate and Zoe are faced with their ultimate test, as only one of them will be able to compete for the gold.

With an uncertain future, struggling present, and dark past revisited, what kind of story will unfold?

Review

The review contains some spoilers.

I was really looking forward for this book since I read the blurb. I like sport-fiction with rivalry between friends and it seemed that Gold is that kind of book. In the end I am both satisfied and not satisfied with this book.

I'm satisfied because Gold lived up my storyline expectation. I wasn't satisfied because I expected more on-field story. Maybe some preliminaries where other athletes involved, or exhibition match. You know, more adrenaline.

I am not a big fans of flashback in the middle of the story, but I guess it's the only way here as the flashbacks gave us more insight of the big picture. Some flashbacks were well timed, but some disrupted the pace. I skimmed most of the untimely flashbacks, because I was itching to find out what was going to happen.

The characters were adorable, but frustrating at the same time. Like when they found out that Zoe was pregnant with Jack's baby and Tom, Zoe and Kate's coach, said that on his time he would beat Jack out so he would take responsibility, and then Jack responded with, "You're not her dad", I almost blew out. Especially because Jack was Kate's bf. Although he was having a fight with Kate who wanted to break up due to her suspicion that Jack and Zoe had a relationship.

Well, at least he took responsibility for the baby afterward.

I also felt that Sophie, somehow too mature for her age, but I blamed the narative style for that.

Despite the sometimes-frustrating-characters, the story was interesting and very page-turning. This is my first Chris Cleave's book and I'm definitely will read his works again in the future.

This book is for the following reading challenges:
- 2013 New Authors Reading Challenge
- 2013 Books in English Reading Challenge
- 2013 Color Coded Reading Challenge


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