Review of Sip Lake

[Caterine Potes Morales]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Sip Lake" by joseph basara.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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“Why is love so much like war?”

Cypress City, also known by locals as Sip Lake, is a small town in Florida where Owen Cloud decides to move in search of his own life and love story. The story is set in 1977 and unfolds over several months (between May and September), allowing the reader to get to know Owen as the protagonist and his process of adapting to a new city and a new job. With the support of a friend, he lands a job at the hospital working the night shift as an orderly, quickly falling into his new routine.

As the book uses a first-person narrative, the reader sees everything from Owen’s point of view, providing a deeper sense of his feelings and how his environment affects him. This is especially important as we learn that one of his main goals is to find love, as he feels incomplete. Owen, as the protagonist and narrator, is a well-built character who helps the reader feel sympathetic towards him. He is witty, introspective, fun, and sensitive, but he also faces multiple personal issues, believing he is not attractive enough to find love. This becomes a central theme in his journey to find the special one.

Since much of Owen’s routine takes place at the hospital, the book introduces many characters who, even if they only appear once, serve an essential role: to show the reader the humanity and empathy that Owen feels for others as he serves and attends to many people from the city.

In his quest for love, Owen takes the reader through various stages of a relationship: friendships, first dates, heartbreak, deception, and the ability to fall in love again. The author successfully uses this comedy-romance story to impart lessons on family, love, happiness, mourning, sticking to principles, second chances, and self-esteem. One particularly entertaining aspect is the abundance of nicknames and names (especially last names) with double meanings (e.g., Jack Mackerel, Flora Cracker, Tammy Papaya). These creative names never failed to make me smile each time a new character was introduced.

Sip Lake is also very well-structured, and this, combined with the short length of the book and fluid narration, makes it an easy and enjoyable read for any kind of reader. Because I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it well-edited, I rate the book 5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the rom-com genre and a fast-paced book.

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Sip Lake
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