'The Gym' by Lawrence H. Sola

★★

I Couldn't Quite Get Into It

First of all, the writing was either well done, or it wasn't, which made me have to re-read some parts for it to make sense. For example: 
​     "A week later, I was caught behind a school bus flipping briskly through my notepad." 
Really? A school bus is flipping through your notepad?

Moreover, I really didn't like the primary protagonist at all. He was too whiny and seemed to have one infantile girlfriend after another, all of whom wanted to help break his writer's block or help with some other aspect of his writing. At least they all seemed quite adept at giving writing advice. 

​And that's the other thing -- there were a LOT of writing references that seemed forced into the dialogue, such as: 
​     "Whatever," Christina hollered. "This storyline of yours is officially going through the ugly chapters." 
     "How long do these ugly chapters last?"
​     "As long as it takes the protagonist to figure out everything they've been doing wrong."
​
​Then they're off talking about what they were actually talking about before the insertion of the writing reference. And everybody he meets seems to feel so comfortable with him because of his book 'The Show.' It's very unrealistic, to say the least. 

​Anyway, the story was very repetitious and seemed to drag on forever. Personally, I couldn't get into it in the least and was glad to turn the final page, which I struggled to reach.