book of the week

the middleman

T I T L E

the middleman

A U T H O R

trapdoctorx

B L U R B

(as copied from book)

❝ You think I'm a bounty hunter? ❞

Well, that surely wasn't how Leia Kar imagined her first conversation with Quinn Carter would go. Hell, she didn't think they would ever have a first conversation.

T H O U G H T S

"No one escape[s] unscathed."

That's what Leia Kar tells us from the very beginning of @trapdoctorx's The Middleman.

High school, as many of us very well know, is fueled less by grades and more by drama. Who's sleeping with who, who got stoned at the frat party last Saturday night, who stole the soccer trophy from the administrative buildings and covered it in spray paint.

Those are the people we pay attention to, rather than the ones half-hidden in the shadows of the cabinets in the back of the room.

So it comes as a surprise to Leia Kar when she bumps into one of those silent, forgotten students, Quinn Carter, and comes out with what looks like a hit list in hand. Except it's not a hit list---not for murder, at least.

Without giving too much away, thanks to some excessive alcohol and a dream that looks like the brainchild of The Matrix, Leia gets roped into Quinn's work as a "middleman", navigating the murky waters of business, sex, and money.

Quite a daunting feat for a senior and valedictorian-in-waiting trudging through APs while her friends relax blissfully in senioritis.

This has the vibe of a James Bond film, with an unbelievably gorgeous cast and kickass characters, male and female. There aren't as many characters running out of exploding burning buildings with guns blazing, but these characters still take down "enemies" and navigate tricky situations with their contracts and pens.

Even though this campaign is about promoting Asian girls, part of being human is to have interpersonal relationships, and I think this story does such a unique job in illustrating a friendship that relies on two fiercely independent POCs to keep it afloat.

And the fantastic thing is that we get two absolutely stunning POCs for a cast (yes, people of color can be beautiful too! we don't need whitewashing to make a book or movie successful! you hearing me, hollywood?)

Our author teaches us through one of the most complex and improbable examples that friendships, relationships, whatever you'd like to call them---they are all essential in forming who we are as people. Leia's friends are the ones who always counterbalance her academic mania with careless enjoyment; they are neon in comparison to the dark humour she fires at Quinn like bullets out of a gun.

Relationships, in this novel, are stained by the complicated world of economics and politics and trade, and yes, sex, but throughout it all Leia's and Quinn's relationship, even though foundationally based from a trade, is the one that succeeds---a conditional friendship, yes, but sometimes they are stronger than the friendships you have with people you know for forever. There is value in branching out, in discovering new people.

Relationships only exist because of trust, though, something fragile as glass and infinitely less transparent.

Difficult to make, easily shattered, impossible to put back together again.

. . . 

written by teamiyazaki