Elixir has a very original plot structure. The plot is about an undercover surfer working to find the heir to a pharmaceutical empire. As a twist, the heir was his former girlfriend. He is sent on this mission by the heir's sister, a strange character indeed.
The problem is the lead has no feeling and no character to him. He does everything perfectly and has no extra thoughts. Bunn does too much of telling the story and not enough character development. There were multiple characters that should have been deeper than they were. I don't know who any of Bunn's characters are. I don't know how they would react in a certain situation because they're all plastic. There is one particular good character that Bunn does nothing to expand upon.
Another problem is the false suspense. The back cover describes it as suspense. This is the most overused genre because a lot of authors think they can write suspense when they really cannot. This book is really a modern-day quest, which is still one of the most overused plot structures.
Bearing all these problems with the book, the end wasn't half bad. I mean the real end, not the two unnecessary epilogues that ruin the book. If it weren't for the epilogues, the end would redeem the book. But the epilogues ruin it. It's like Bunn couldn't leave well enough alone.
I know when you first started reading this, you thought I was a geeky reviewer who couldn't see a good story from a bad one, but this book wasn't really good enough to be the Crossings book club selection of the month. And Davis Bunn isn't as good as he thinks he is.
2.5 stars for potential
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