[b:The Victim|42589331|The Victim|Max Manning|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549367958l/42589331._SY75_.jpg|66279399]
Fight or Flight?

Thank you Max Manning the publisher and NetGalley for my digital arc of The Victim. While I believe the author took artistic risks in the way he structured this book I had like many other readers a hard time following certain aspects. It made for an interesting read and added to the psychological factor of the story. Whether you think it works is a complete personal matter and honestly this might be the first arc that I have been given that I wish I had the actual book to better be able to go back and forth from chapter to chapter. I will say I loved the concept of Fight or Surrender it has a way of pulling you in what makes it more challenging is that there are far too many chapters and far too many points of views to keep straight and my fear with that for other readers is that most read for enjoyment and not to feel that reading is a task. I will however say that if you give this a chance you will find that Manning takes the time to be insightful as he explores all aspects of the characters personalities. Take Gem for example she feels others judge her based on her actions during the carjacking. And guess what? She’s right. One of the positive aspects of the multiple viewpoints is that we see how various people interpret her actions. The police try not to judge yet you get the impression they do anyway. The reporter is only interested when she is the strong warrior setting an example for others. The attacker in his delusional state of being takes her fear and makes it something horrid. All I kept thinking while reading this book is that quote by Robert Frost “Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
In this case would it make a difference thought?
My highlights of this book are the insights into the psychology of the attack and response While the plot is suspenseful, I think it would be an error of judgement to try to read The Victim as a straight-forward suspense novel. While it is beautifully packaged that way this one takes time an energy to get straight in your head. I know that many people will say that this is not worth the time. Even though I am a little late to the party with my review I will happily disagree and pick up another Max Manning book in the future. ( )

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Well this was a shame. I was looking forward to this one because having an author follow the two possible paths a potential car jacking victim could go sounded so intriguing. Too bad that Manning didn't just focus on the main protagonist and added in POVs from so many people. Also I got so confused after a while if I was following Gem as survivor or Gem as warrior.

"The Victim" follows Gem Golding. Gem stops on her way home to get some painkillers and is accosted by a carjacker. Gem reels wondering if she should fight back or should she just acquiesce with the carjacker's demands. We get at the decision point and from there Manning follows Gem's life if she given in or if she had fought back.

At first I really liked the book. I liked Gem and understood why she was so focused on not being seen as a victim (in either timeline) and getting back to her job. I wish that Manning had stayed more focused on her since the whole point of the book was Gem and how her life was impacted. Manning then shows the different timelines for the same people (her boyfriend, the carjacker, the detectives, the reporter, and others) who follow if Gem was a victim or a survivor.

There was way too much going on and I had to keep going back and forth in my Kindle to make sure I was reading it correctly if Gem was a victim or survivor. After a while I just gave up and started to feel frustrated because it was hard to follow what was going on. Manning should have stripped out the other characters. We focused way too much on the carjacker who apparently went to how to be a serial killer school.

The writing was okay, but I think the scattered shot approach to everyone didn't work real well. I was disappointed in the conclusion of one of the story-lines (Gem as a survivor) and think that Manning should have followed up with an epilogue on both of those story-lines. However, I don't think it mattered to him much, since as I said, Gem wasn't really the focus as she should have been.

The flow was up and down throughout. Following so many people and different story-lines depending on which version of Gem we were with in the book was just confusing and definitely impacted what was going on. It didn't help that we had subplots going on with the detectives and carjacker and reporter as well. The boyfriend POVs don't really count considering how short they were.

The ending was a meh to one story-line with Gem and a "I guess" to the other one following her. ( )

The Victim by Max Manning is a so-so examination of two choices and two outcomes during an attack.

Gem Golding, a public relations executive, has two choices when she is accosted in a parking lot by a man with a knife: to fight or to comply; to be a warrior or a victim. The attacker, Con Norton, is a psychopath who has made the attack a game where he alone decides what happens. Gem doesn't know this or the rules to his game, but her choice of how she will react will determine what he will do.

After the initial encounter where Con demands the keys to Gem's car, two different versions of the future are presented in parallel timelines. Chapters are alternately from the point-of-view of "Gem, the Warrior" or as "Gem, the Victim," and then within the chapters the alternate stories are told through Gem, Det. Insp. Elliot Day, Con, and Gem's boyfriend, Drew Bentley. Also present is journalist Matt Revell who is using Gem's story to advance his career. The alternate story lines oscillate between the two different outcomes based on Gem's initial decisions.

The two different story lines sort of reminded me of the choose your own adventure books my children were obsessed with while in grade school. In this case, while it was an interesting idea, I'm not sure it was a great choice. The choice to present the two different narratives in this rather contrived format simply didn't work for this reader in this story. Perhaps if Manning stuck with alternating simply on Gem as either a warrior or a victim it would have been a more successful alternate universe sort of story. Adding all the other characters and their reactions and choices to Gem's initial choice lessens the dual perspective of the consequences of her initial choice. I started out liking the book, thinking it might be an interesting way to tell the story, but it soon became tiring for me and the resolution to the two narratives were both not completely satisfying.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Sourcebooks/Landmark.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/08/the-victim.html ( )

When one evening Gem Golding stops at a drugstore to get some pain killers, a man approaches her and tries to hijack her car. He obviously has a knife, but she never wanted to become a victim. So she has to make a choice quickly: either give in, surrender to him and the situation or fight for her life. Depending on how she decides, her life will take different turns. Gem will either be the fighter or the victim.

Max Manning’s thriller is an interesting play with how the options presented to us and the decisions made have a huge impact on what follows. He continues the story by narrating the two outcomes in a paralleled line, showing the result of each of Gem’s choice and the consequences that necessarily come with it: the psychological effect the decision has on her but also on her husband Drew, her relationship with him, but also her career in PR which forces her to work late hours.

Both sides are convincing in their own way and both stories have their appeal. Yet, admittedly, I got frequently confused which annoyed me a lot. It took some time until I had figured out the concept but until that I was wondering if I could really have misunderstood so much. A different font or the like might have helped a lot. There were some interesting twists and turns, also the characters varied a lot depending on the story line which made it quite interesting and kept suspense high.

An utterly singular concept of dealing with a story, however, it did not fully work out for me which is a pity since I really appreciated the story itself and the writer’s style of writing. ( )

Max Manning took a huge artistic risk with The Victim. The dual-plot/timeline concept is fascinating, both from a story perspective and a psychological one. It’s also hard to pull off. I’m not certain the end result here was entirely successful. But I commend Manning for being willing to take that risk.

Whether or not you think the two parallel stories “work” is probably personal. It might also help to read a print version, as flipping back and forth on my phone Kindle app wasn’t ideal. I took notes, highlighted in either pink (for the Surrender chapters) or yellow (for the Fight chapters), which helped a bit. Even so, I became confused by what had happened and when for each section.

There were multiple times when I thought some action had already occurred (for example, Gem’s conversation with her boss about returning to work) and wondered why the characters acted as though it hadn’t. Then I realized that, yes, that action had occurred–in the other scenario.

Two things contributed to my confusion:
One, multiple point of view characters
We got the viewpoints of Gem (the victim), Norton (her attacker), Elliot Day (the police investigator), Drew Bentley (Gem’s boyfriend), and Matt Revell (a tabloid journalist exploiting the story). Their individual sections are labelled with their names. Even so, it’s confusing to switch both scenario and point of view between chapters.

For example, one chapter came from Gem’s point of view in her victim/surrender scenario, and the next chapter came from Day’s point of view, but in the Gem-the-Warrior scenario. I had to flip back to the chapter before last to remember what just happened and what Day and his sergeant are discussing.

Two, short chapters
Not all the chapters were extremely short, but some were. This fed into the issue I described. Personally, I would have preferred longer sections from each scenario.

On the positive side . . .
There were definitely intriguing moments. The idea of the two outcomes running parallel to each other gives the opportunity for different reactions to the same plot point.

For example, in Gem’s conversation with Melanie, her boss, there are two scenarios. (No spoilers.) In one, Gem wants to return to work and Melanie is reluctant to allow this. In the other, Gem dreads returning to work and Melanie is angry.
Why? Each Gem (Warrior and Victim) reacted differently to the attack. As a result, the two Gems have different attitudes toward her (their?) work and the two Melanies react based on their attitudes toward that Gem’s response.

Let’s face it: we tend to cheer for people who fight their attacker. (But only if they win. And by “win,” we mean “stay alive.”) People tend to judge those who “freeze” and seem to acquiesce to their attacker. Even though studies have shown that it’s very, very common to freeze rather than fight or flee, people still judge. They shouldn’t. As one character points out, no one should be shamed for an action based on instinct.

Manning’s insightful as he explores this dynamic. Gem feels others judge her based on her actions during the carjacking. And guess what? She’s right. One of the positive aspects of the multiple viewpoints is that we see how various people interpret her actions.

The police investigators try not to judge–but do.
The reporter is only interested in her when she’s the aggressive warrior, not the passive victim. (It makes for a better story, right?)
The attacker interprets her actions in his own delusional, twisted way. (And it’s very twisted!)

What makes it worse for her is that there is not ONE right choice. There’s a lot of contradictory advice on how to respond during an attack. What’s a good choice in one situation may not be a good choice in another. What should someone do if he/she’s attacked? It depends. Manning explores this, too, with great effect.

These insights into the psychology of the attack and response are the highlight of the book. While the plot is suspenseful, I think it’s a mistake to try to read The Victim as a straight-forward suspense/thriller novel. It’s not. It’s an exploration of what it means to be a survivor and how one choice can change our lives.

For those who are interested in the book, I recommend reading it twice: once straight through, and a second time, reading all the “Fight” sections and then all the “Surrender” sections. Or try reading in this order: the Fight sections, the Surrender sections, and the entire novel cover to cover.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )