No Strings Attached

Despite its somewhat silly premise and the requisite amount of hokey plot points, "No Strings Attached" somehow resonates a certain amount of truth. The story opens on shy Abby Morrell, a self-proclaimed "invisible" sophomore who, through a harrowing rafting accident, forms an unlikely friendship with popular junior Kirk Phillips, who insists that the near-death experience has rendered them "Chinese life partners." Despite the fact that he is already involved in a serious, long-standing relationship with gorgeous and sophisticated Colleen Kelly, Kirk begins a bizarre courtship of Abby, as the two launch a small-scale business enterprise based on Abby's love of puppetry. The novel, carried by this conflict of forbidden romance, suffers from the natural narrative repercussions of such a conflict; namely, it's hard to like a guy who would cheat on his girlfriend, even if it is with the story's protagonist. The novel manages to skirt the issue somewhat, by depicting the blooming romance with skillful subtlety and by adding a slight twist toward the novel's resolution. In spite of the unusual course of the narrative and a few miscues with respect to character development, there remains something tender, touching, and inherently human in the depiction of the flawed young friends, each in a time of personal transition, each fighting their growing attraction, and each ultimately coming to the realization that they desperately need one another.