Mikky's Reviews! For Mac by Brynn Stein

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Branson Farrell lost his parents when he was thirteen, and for the last ten years his brother, Mac, eight years his senior, has taken care of him. But Mac’s love came at a price. Both brothers were raised to believe being gay was completely unacceptable, and Branson has almost convinced himself he can be what Mac expects. When he looks at a man in a bar and Mac notices, Mac drags him off in horror.

Mac’s distress and disgust leads to a car accident that leaves Branson injured and Mac in a coma. Branson heals and stays at Mac’s bedside, but when Mac doesn’t recover, he is moved to a long-term care facility. There, Branson meets openly gay, confident, and attractive Liam Sullivan. Liam stirs feelings Branson thought he’d rid himself of, and to honor his brother, Branson fights tooth and nail against his attraction. When the cost of denying who he is becomes too high, Branson must battle a lifetime of hatred that’s been beaten into his body and mind to try for something of his own.

This had the potential of being one of the best stories I’ve read in a while. The idea behind it was brilliant. Unfortunately, the author kind of failed at putting her thoughts on paper.

For Mac is the story of a man who’s struggling to overcome his fears and what has been drilled into his mind all his life, all this while dealing with the fact that he might lose the only family he has left.

Mac is controlling, cold and sometimes downright abusive. Yes, he had a rough upbringing with mostly absent parents and, later, had to assume the role of a parent himself when they were gone.

He makes it his mission in life to dictate his younger brother’s life and make him as submissive as possible, resorting to fists when harsh words are not enough.

Branson is a complete mess, emotionally and psychologically. While very intelligent and perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he’s been under his older brother’s control for years and he’s reached a point where his every action or thought is conditioned by the fear of disappointing Mac.

He’s struggling with accepting who he is, unconsciously embarking on a path that will lead to his self destruction.

Liam. Well, Liam was a little bit to perfect for my taste. He’s good looking, has the perfect, supportive family, his childhood has been perfect and he’s out and proud. He’s also this compassionate soul who’s willing to give everything without asking for anything in return. See my point?

Let’s get to the story.

This novel has been a huge pile of contradictions interspersed with incorrect details. But we’ll get to those in a minute.

Two of my biggest petpeeves could be found in this book- the skipping of large periods of time and making a subject sound so important and then just brushing it off.

Dear authors- DON’T do that. It’s annoying as hell.

I’ve ranted about the time thing over and over again and I’ll do it once more. I absolutely hate it when I’m reading and, all of a sudden, a few weeks/months/years have passed, the story and the characters are at a completely new stage and you don’t give any clue as to what might have happened during that period and how they have reached this point. God, why?!?!

Think about it this way – you’re talking to someone, you listen to their story and, just like that, with no explanation, they disappear, only to return a certain period of time later, completely changed and refusing to give you any details about what has happened and where they’ve been all this time but pretending to move on just like that. 

Frustrating, huh? Well, it frustrates me also whenever this happens in a book. So, don’t.

Then, there is the matter of making something sound so important, like it’s an essential detail in the development of the story, and then just brush it off like it didn’t even happened.

Why make such a big deal out of it in the first place? 

See, these things might not seem important to you but, to a curious mind like mine, they are and it drives me up a freakin’ wall when I can’t get any kind of detail.

Now, let’s get back to what I was saying before about the incorrect details.

A piece of advice - when choosing to talk about a medical condition in your book, ALWAYS make sure you have the facts straight. In cases like this, Google is definitely NOT your friend. You can use it just to gain some generic knowledge but, if you want to get into details, try talking to someone that can actually give you some accurate info. 

A heart can be revived with electrical shocks only so many times until it completely ceases any activity for a number of reasons.

While Mac and Branson’s story is sad and heartbreaking, I really couldn’t get into it. All their lives before the accident are explained in fifteen or twenty pages in the beginning and then, it goes on and on about Bran’s struggle to cope with Mac’s condition and his feelings.

Details kept popping here and there that took me completely by surprise because I had no idea where to place them and how to connect them.

There was a discontinuity between each phrase, each fragment and a lot of jumping from one thing to another that made it very difficult to keep up with what was going on.

I really, really tried to like it, to ignore all these things but it didn’t work.

Only in the last 25% of the book I started to “feel” the story but I was disappointed again in the end.

This was my first Brynn Stein book and, while not overly impressed with her writing style, I WILL pick up her other stories because the ideas behind them are worth the struggle, in my opinion.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t read this novel. Like I said, the story is beautiful and sad and heartbreaking. It just didn’t work out for me.

Happy Reading!

I've always loved to write and wrote fan fiction before I even knew what it was called. When computers came along, with online communities and places to publish fan fiction, I wrote even more. Then a friend convinced me to try to have an altered version of an AU (alternate universe, meaning all but original) published. My manuscript was accepted and now I'm a 'published author'.

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