“The Complexities of Love” by M.A. Quigley

Is there a thing more torturing for a human being than a lack of feeling of belonging? That’s what Mark has to grow up and live with.

The real tumult of emotions boils inside Mark while he’s growing up, and it doesn’t quieten when he enters adulthood. He can’t find a place for himself, either in the outside world or within himself. Since he was a child, he knew that he was different. And it wasn’t an easy realisation to make.

Every aspect of Mark’s life – his school days, his work afterward, the relationships with his parents and sister – is marred by the knowledge that society wouldn’t accept him. M.A. Quigley has done a remarkable job depicting the life void of… life. I felt so sad, reading and almost living through the gloomy days with Mark. I could feel how his existence seemed colourless and useless to him.

Mark’s relationship with Dave is full of unspoken words and the pain they hide from each other. They are so full of burdens and problems the condemning society imposes on them that they can’t afford to think much about what they feel towards each other and how to proceed with their relationship.

I’ve found some moments in the book a little unsettling, and those scenes sent my mind in a slightly different direction from the torments of the main character. But there is nothing in this world that is pure through and through. There’ll always be something that we won’t be able to accept. The most important thing, as I see it, is to grant everyone equal rights to be happy within their own projection of what happiness consists of.

“The Complexities of Love” by M.A. Quigley is a multi-layered coming-of-age story. It is full of emotions, and it will definitely leave readers thinking about the complexities of life and love after they turn the last page and read “the end”.