Will McIntosh is one of the more interesting writers around. His last book, Hitchers (my review), was a fun romp through a ghostly experience that was a lot of fun. This time around, McIntosh tackles death from a different angle in his new novel Love Minus Eighty. This book is not a romance novel as in Fabio cover and awkward phrases for body parts, but it is a story about romance in the future where it’s possible to come back from death. This story is more of a romantic comedy style of romance where you know what is coming, but the journey is so joyful that you’re happy for it to come. Let’s see what happens.
In a future time, Rob is currently dating Lorelei, but that’s about to end. She’s reading his private diary to her followers (people who have little windows and can watch what she does). He gets mad and drives off in a huff. Meanwhile Nathan just had a fight with his girlfriend Winter, so she went for a run to calm down. Rob’s car meets Winter’s running and our plot is in motion. Rob loses almost everything in the breakup. He’s been living mainly off Lorelei’s family money and all his friends are basically her friends. He moves in with his parents after all the events and then finds out that Winter is in the bridesicle program.
No, that’s not its official name, but we need to take a step back at this point. In this future, people can get frozen after death and either someone with money (or with insurance) you can be brought back from the dead in exactly the state you were just prior to death. For women who don’t have the insurance or money, they can be selected to enter the bridesicle program if they are deemed attractive enough. In this program, a dating profile is made for them and they are animated for 15 minute dates for a fee and can be purchased back to life by someone with enough money. However, they are basically owned by that person from then on.
Back to our story, Veronika is a co-worker of Nathan (they both work as sort of dating advisors who work on dating profiles and can literally be a voice in your ear on a date) and has a bit of a crush on him. She feels like she’s not doing anything worthwhile in her life, so she tries to stop someone from jumping off the bridge. Lycan jumps off to his death, but he’s important enough to his company that they bring him back to life.
Rob starts visiting Winter in the bridesicle program and slowly falls in love with her, but he doesn’t have nearly enough money to buy her out. Nathan starts dating Lorelei (who hires Veronika as her dating advisor) and Lycan starts having a crush on Veronika. We end up in a situation where there are 6 people who are romantically tangled up and the rights of the bridesicles starts being the major driver for the plot.
Overall, it’s a fun romp through a future with a cast of interesting people. The romance subplots take up a large part of the book and help drive the characterizations. McIntosh gets into the characters and their situations and keeps the book moving along quickly even as the plot slowly meanders along. It’s a wonderful book and I’m looking forward to reading even more from Will McIntosh in the future. Recommended