Overall Rating:
“Privacy and freedom are things we all take for granted. Fame can take it’s toll on a person, it’s dangerous.”
I picked up this Book for a shorter read in between a bunch of thrillers and it was great to get a change of scenery for a while before jumping into the next! With Little Means was a strange read for me; its strongest feature was was definitely its plot, something so interesting and intriguing that I was desperate to see how it unfolded. However, the pacing issues and lack of character development let it down for me, which is a shame because this book could have been a favourite of mine if it had been given the love it deserved! Saying this, I’m really happy to be putting this little indie novella in the spotlight!
About the book
With Little Means explores the dangers of fame and stardom. We all have dreams, but how many of us actually pursue them? A new reality show called Remarkable offers ordinary people a chance to relive their dreams using advanced memory technology. Rai Starr faces a difficult decision: should he give up his family for a shot at rock stardom? As he embarks on this journey, he meets actress Amy Strong and discovers the dark consequences of fame.
The beginning
The first thing I thought when I started reading this was that it would probably be well suited as an autobiography! The Author starts by giving us a great insight to his life as a musician, his passion for music and his medical condition, and how this diagnosis changed everything. All this in itself was so interesting, and would be such an insightful non-fiction read. Turning this story into a work of fiction with some real life names still in there felt a bit strange for me right away, and I found it difficult to connect with these characters, but I jumped in with an open mind – I certainly felt a bit better about things as this developed and as Raimo’s real life experiences blended into a more fictional storyline. The pacing felt way too fast to start with, and I just wanted to slow things down a bit and enjoy the journey with more detail! I hoped this would be the case later on and after the scene had been set.
“My whole life I’ve put others before myself, it’s in my nature, but this time I know, I need to do this, for me.”
When the opportunity arises for Rai to appear on reality show, Remarkable, he’s unsure at first whether his story and everything he’s experienced truly makes him remarkable, whether he really deserves a spot. I hate reality shows in real life, but I love reading about them for some reason. After a little encouragement from a friend, he agrees, and this is the start of a really unusual journey for him. I’ll be honest, dialogue between characters felt a little robotic at times and it was pretty difficult to imagine a conversation playing out in my mind, but at other times, I became sucked in, following every word. Especially when Rai learns more about this reality show and what it entails. The idea of giving people the opportunity to go back to a point in their life before they walked away from their dreams, letting them relive it all was GENIUS. Such an original idea that felt really good. The last thing I expected was a time travelling adventure, so I was very pleasantly surprised!
The middle
You can really feel the passion the author has for music throughout reading this. His words instantly transport you to watching a band perform live, or what it feels like to write something you believe in, 100%. It made me smile how much the detail in these paragraphs increased, like this is the part of the book the author really wanted to write. I loved the names of Rai’s band members; they felt gimmicky and fun (Rikki Stixx… was that a nod to the mighty Nikki Sixx?!) and reading about the early days of him meeting his partner was really interesting. The author got across that feeling of familiarity very well, and it felt like us too already knew Rachyl. So much of this plot was so clever, and I finally began to find the book entertaining and exciting the more I got into it. The different timelines were easily distinguishable; his current life and the simulation of his old life was so different.
“I created this program to help people find their peace in their life. This is your time, use it, make it count.”
I really liked how the narrative was split – we mostly hear from Rai, but there was also the odd chapter from the creators of the show as well as Henry, the programmer for Remarkable‘s memory machine and Rai’s guide throughout his time in the past. We find out a lot more about the mystery Amy, another famous Remarkable face who disappeared, and again, it’s another absolutely fantastic part of the plot. Something I didn’t expect! The fame starts to build, changing Rai’s character into one more obsessive, like he was abusing the power he’d gained. There were some scenes and additions to the story which I felt were a bit pointless, like Rai’s flings with different women, not really adding much to the story, and these were very short lived due to pacing issues. Despite this, the main points of the story really got me thinking and there was a nice bit of tension building to make me curious for the end.
The end
Things got a bit confusing for me with the plot towards the end as Rai’s present day wife goes into the simulation, taking the identity of another character to try and right some wrongs. There was a part of the book where Rai knows something that he hasn’t yet been told, which must have been a missed detail when editing (or maybe I just missed it!) Things moved very quickly again which was a shame; when you finally feel good about a scene, you’re yanked out of it and pushed quickly into the next, almost like there was a real rush to get this book finished. Despite this, I somewhat enjoyed the more action packed scenes we get, but again, I wish they’d been better developed and fleshed out, described with more feeling and passion. It was frustrating that such a great story line and turn in events didn’t get the exploration it deserved. There were a lot of scenes that appeared out of the blue, but I did understand what the author was trying to portray.
“As powerful as fame can be, it can never replace true love.”
The final scenes rounded up the story well, if a little faster than I would have liked. There was a really nice moral to the story which was thought-provoking and was put across to the reader well. At the very end, we get a look into what the futures of these characters looked like, which I really liked. But, after finishing that last page, I still felt a little frustrated. Thinking back on what I read, this book had so much potential, but really lacked the description and attention to detail. This combined with fixing a lot of pacing issues and dialogue would take this book from an okay read, to a great read. Saying this, I’d still be curious to read the author’s future work – I’ve noticed a lot of reviews for the book are saying similar things to this review, so really hope the author takes these notes on board for whatever he writes next!
Overall thoughts
With Little Means is a thought-provoking read about how fame and stardom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but is glued together with a unique time-travelling hook that had me very pleasantly surprised! Despite it’s originality and some really fun and tense moments, there were a number of issues that caused me to lose interest in places and which made me think the book hasn’t been properly edited. The pacing felt really off, dialogue was robotic without much character, and it was lacking so much description in places. I wanted to really love this book, and even though I adored the storyline, it could have really done with a little more TLC. Really hope the author takes this on board and makes his next book the best it can possibly be!
If you want to check out With Little Means for yourself and support an indie author, you can buy a copy for yourself right now over on Amazon, available on Kindle, Audiobook and in paperback. Make sure you’re following the author over on Twitter and Instagram for more updates!
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