BOOK REVIEW "Wallbanger" -The Personification of the Orgasm

Wallbanger Author: Alice Clayton
"The Personification of the O" by Nakeesha J. Seneb

I love Alice Clayton's voice. The two heroines she's brought on the scene have both been witty, sassy, independent and aggressive. Their men are neither alphaholes nor pushovers. Both of them are great conversationalists that can keep up with the witty banter of her heroines. That, in and of itself, is a breath of fresh air in this rom-com genre.

Caroline was all the adjectives above in this work, though a little too perfect and flawless for my tastes. She got her dream job just out of college and was skyrocketing to success. Her only flaw? Her hijacked O. Simon, though scarred from his past, led a pretty charmed life too: a job that took him all over the world and hips powerful enough to bang a triad of beauties into his bedroom wall. Caroline lives on the other side of said wall being banged, which is the catalyst that throws them together.

Really great premise! Tons of wit. And even a couple of twists and surprises. However I had issues with the plotting, pacing, and tension...and some of the writing.

I loved that Clayton made a plot out of a missing O -loved that. What helped this plot along was the personification of said O, along with Brain, Heart, Backbone, Nerves and even a brief supporting role of Simon's Wang. Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to something nonhuman. Think National Geographic Specials where the animals are all given human names, emotions, and plot lines. The despair, anxiety, and eventual swan-diving joy Caroline's orgasm experiences are gripping and hilarious.

What didn't help this plot was a lot of extraneous scenes that seemed thrown in to fill time between the major plot points of the MCs being in the same room. There was tons and tons of telling, as seems to be flaw in Clayton's writing style. There was also a glaring lack of tension, which I felt could have been easily fixed by having Corey "O Stealing" Weinstein and James "Chauvinist Ex Boyfriend" Brown make more appearances to muss things up. Or I wished Caroline had faced some real challenges, perhaps at work -but no, everything worked out perfectly for her outside of the conflict -her missing O. She just had to wait a really, REALLY long time for a resolution. And as a reader, I had to read (skim over) a lot of words that didn't really matter to get to the sweet spot too.

And then there were the texting chapters? They were informative, but they seemed wrong. Technically, speaking. This work was in Caroline's 1st person POV. But at one point, it switched to Simon's. Then at one point Clive's, who's a cat. That just didn't seem right to me.

And then there was the ending. It dragged on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long after the missing O was recovered. And nothing happened in those extra chapters. Nothing. I feel that writers use their crafting skills to get their readers to trust their storytelling. I felt dropped on the bum more than a couple times in this work and now I'm a little gunshy of Ms. Clayton.