Lorie Yauney's debut novel, Corbin's Basement, is an entertaining rollercoaster ride through a world of suffering. I never would have imagined that reading about a serial killer could be so much fun.
The novel opens when Peyton Alexander moves to Atlanta from South Dakota to take on a new position as HR Director for a company named Blast. There she meets a young customer service representative, Corbin, whom she immediately falls for. Peyton wants to keep things professional, so at first, she tries to avoid Corbin, but eventually, she agrees to go out for pizza with him, and soon they are an item. However, Corbin has a secret-he is missing a thumb, and Peyton wants to know why.
Meanwhile, Corbin's best friend, the nerdy Spencer, is jealous that Corbin is spending so much time with Peyton when he should be helping him build a toy train scene to win a contest. Spencer has never had luck with women, so he decides to take out his frustration on Peyton, digging into her past for ways to bring her down so Corbin will see what she is really like and dump her.
As the novel progresses, Yauney takes us back and forth between present-day events and her characters' backstories. We see dramatic office politics playing out amid a background of traumatic childhoods and deep, dark secrets that the characters feel too vulnerable to share with each other at least at first.
Most traumatic of all is Corbin's childhood. His mother Jessica had gotten pregnant by a would-be rodeo star, the millionaire playboy Franklin Eastman. Franklin wanted nothing to do with Jessica once he realized she was pregnant. Jessica considered having an abortion but decided against it, only to feel once Corbin was born that he had ruined her life. Corbin's childhood was one of neglect and seeing his mother's successive boyfriends use and abuse her. His only friend was the owner of the diner where his mother worked, and even that friendship was destined to fall apart. During this dysfunctional childhood, Corbin also lost his thumb-an event that would have a devastating impact on the adult he became.
Once grown up, Corbin wanted to develop a relationship with his father, but his father still refused to be involved. Now, while Corbin and Peyton are trying to figure out their relationship and Spencer is trying to break them up, Franklin reenters the picture, adding to the string of volatile situations as he tries to find out whether Corbin has the same unnatural propensities he has.
To say much more would spoil all the fun for the reader. For a debut novel, Yauney shows herself already a master at weaving together multiple plots to keep readers constantly entertained; I was often on the edge of my seat as I waited to see whether Peyton and Corbin's love could help them surmount all odds. Yancey's characters are well-rounded and gain our sympathies despite how they, at times, repel us. Despite their idiosyncrasies, they are believable and we find ourselves sympathizing with and cheering for them, even when they are at odds with one another. Best of all, we're kept guessing what will happen until the final page.
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