This is a chapter-by-chapter review of problematic romance novel ‘Walking Disaster’ by Jamie McGuire. Posts in the series will all be linked back to the initial post, here.

This was initially a companion series to the magnificent Jenny Trout‘s review of the original novel, ‘Beautiful Disaster’. Jenny has since stopped her review, not wanting to give McGuire any further publicity in the wake of her attempts to run for office.

 

Chapter Twenty-Six: Panic

We have three chapters left, by my count, and I’m going to see if I can manage to skim through them.

Abby and Trav are still back together. People on campus gossip like mad about it until the next scandal comes up. Trav is barely letting Abby out of his sight due to his usual insecurity issues. Wow, clearly that’s very healthy and will not cause any possible problems. Last fight of the year coming up (we supposedly just had Valentine’s Day, so I don’t know whether McGuire has timejumped months forward or just forgotten her timeline again) and Shep and Trav are both quite antsy about this as they need the money. Trav has also decided to make it his last fight forever.

Spring break inched closer

OK, neither of the above; we’re just given no explanation of why Adam’s going to stop the fights this early in the academic year. Well, maybe everyone’s just too busy with studying as end of year gets closer.

Trav gets the call about the fight when he’s at lunch one day. He’ll be fighting someone called John Savage who’s planning to go pro after this, so this is a big deal and the pay’s going to be in the tens of thousands. Meanwhile, Trav’s got a dilemma; he still doesn’t want to let Abby out of his sight, but last time he took her to one of his fights she was groped and then they damn nearly got mixed up with the police. So, good reason to leave her at home, right? If you’re guessing ‘Nah, Travis is going to care more about his personal comfort than about his girlfriend’s well-being’, then, well done, you’re spot on. Also, weirdly, the excuse Trav gives for this is that Shep is going to be out of town and so he’d be leaving her at the flat on her own. Blatantly feeble excuse is blatantly feeble. Abby tries telling him she’ll be fine at home, but Trav won’t listen.

If I’d been any less of an asshole, I would have insisted she stay home, but it had already been established on numerous occasions that I wasn’t.

Oh, OK, at this point McGuire’s just flat-out admitting it and hanging that lampshade. And still raking in the money from selling this as a romance rather than as a fucking dysfunctional mess.

Adam has realised he won’t be able to talk Trav out of this and has advised at least bringing Trent along to keep an eye on Abby during the fight and make sure she’s OK, which Trav does think is worth considering. He goes off to phone Trent and we get Major Tension about whether he’ll be able to get through because apparently the fight is tonight. Why? Are we going to be given any in-story reason as to why Adam can’t give a bit more notice to the top fighter he desperately needs there for a fight that’s so lucrative Travis is getting paid at least $10,000? And, since this is apparently the last day of term and people are leaving all round Trav, how much of an audience does Adam think he’s going to get anyway? And since he must have been advertising to the audience he does have, why, again, does Trav not get to hear about the upcoming fight until Adam phones him? I’m guessing McGuire was going for an edgy ‘this deal will have to be arranged at very short notice, be ready to drop everything and come’ vibe without realising that that doesn’t seem to work in this context.

Anyway, Trav tells us that if he can’t find Trent to be at the fight to keep Abby safe, he’ll just cancel the fight. Because missing out on thousands of dollars that he and his cousin actually need to pay the rent is less important to him than being without his comfort blankie for an hour or two. This is terrifyingly controlling behaviour. There are people up in the space station right now wondering what that massive flag-shaped splash of red is that they can see down on Earth.

Ah; Trav did get through to Trent and apparently the fight is next week, though Trav will only get about an hour’s notice of it at the time, so it’s still weird. Apparently Adam is able to sell enough tickets to be able to pay his fighters in five figures without even giving anyone forewarning of just when it is. Anyway, yes, Trent can make it, hooray, we can all relax.

Abby assures Trav she loves the fact that he can’t relax when she’s out of his sight. Noooo, Abby, noooo. This is controlling behaviour and it’s dangerous for you. It’s going to be so much less cute and adorable when he’s not letting you do things like get a job or even go for a walk by yourself.

Trav finally gets the one-hour warning for the fight a few days later. They get ready and head over to the campus building where it’s being held. We get some heavy foreshadowing with Trav getting worried because the basement’s too small for the crowds that are there and Abby thinking the place feels creepy.  Trav goes out into the ring when he’s introduced, eyeing up John Savage (seriously, that level of nominative determinism is ridiculous; lampshade it or change it). We get a briefly interesting bit about how Travis’s skills are due to the fact that his brothers all fight different ways (except the twins apparently fight the same way as each other, whatever) so he spent his life getting used to different fighting styles.

Anyway, he wins against Savage, apparently concussing him against the concrete floor. Then a hanging lantern falls down and sets fire to a sheet. It’s not clear why Adam was using either sheets or lanterns with candles in… oh, wait, the sheets are covering a load of furniture that’s stored down there. I still don’t see why they were using lanterns.

The fire spreads rapidly and people swarm out trying to get to the fire escape. Trav tries to shove his way across the room to Trent and Abby, which can’t have been great for the panic levels in there, but doesn’t work anyway as he’s getting pushed further away by the crowd. He gets close enough that he can yell at Trent to get Abby out, then starts to head out another way that he knows of, but gets worried Trent and Abby won’t be able to get out, so pushes back that way again. He can’t find them and the place is going up in smoke. Chapter ends.