by Abby (link)
Genre cest, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Alex Greenwald, Taylor/Natalie, Taylor/OMC, Zac/Carrick, Zac/Kate, Zaylor
Length prologue, 63 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
Guilt is the story that introduced many of us to Abby, although she’s only just made it available online again. Although I loved it back then, it wasn’t the one of her stories I went back to reread the most, so I was really looking forward to having a chance to reread it now and see what I thought of it the second time around.
While the story begins with a prologue set in 1998, most of the story takes place during the recording and promotion of The Walk. There’s a lot of backstory that gets glossed over, but explained well without feeling like a huge infodump. To sum it up, Taylor has been consumed by his guilt over the relationship he used to have with Zac, a relationship that he ended when he got married. Now, five years later, something in him breaks and that relationship begins all over again.
That’s a simple summary that really doesn’t come close to describing everything that takes place over the course of nearly 300,000 words. While Abby’s chapters are long, they never seem excessively so, and they’re packed full of action and drama. That drama mostly centers around Zac’s seemingly insane reaction to their relationship being discovered and his ensuing horrible treatment of Taylor.
What really makes Guilt, though, is Abby’s ability to so fully consume the reader in the narrator’s point of view, and her ability to craft enigmatic characters that neither the narrator nor the reader can understand. Upon a second read, I can see Zac’s actions more clearly, but the first time around, I was as shocked by his explanations as Taylor was. Abby has managed to write both an unreliable and completely sympathetic character in this Taylor. While I usually don’t approve of random point of view shifts, the few shifts near the end to Zac’s point of view, actually work well, although I could do without the few chapters from Isaac and Alex’s perspective.
In rereading Guilt now, I can definitely see that Abby has grown as a writer. The dream sequences feel like lazy storytelling at times, something many authors do. There a few typos and some sloppy phrasing, but the characters and plot more than make up for those few flaws in the writing. Guilt is still a great roller coaster ride of a story that any fan of drama, smut and Zaylor will love.
Review by Bethany (website)