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Gabriel Tait is a Toronto-based author, debuting with a novel offering an honest look into the horrors of addiction. Drawing from his personal journey of over two decades of sobriety, the narrative is both evocative and authentic. When not penning gripping tales, Gabriel enjoys spending time with his family. MEEKS is Gabriel’s first novel.
Reviewed by Gaius Konstantine for Readers' Favorite
“The only positive thing you could say about Leigh’s existence was his ability to scrape by and keep his head above water. Other than that, he was a rounding error, destined to be recorded as born and eventually marked as deceased.” Fantasy and reality collide in Meeks, a novel by Gabriel Tait, and it is not easy to know which is which. Nine-year-old Ranleigh Echo Meeks is not a happy kid. His defining moment comes early in life and revolves around a dying rodeo cowboy and a fire at a cranky old woman's house. But did this ever happen? Or is it just the hallucination of a man losing his mind? Twenty years later, Leigh Meeks lives in panic, fear, and anxiety as he works a dead-end job. In his dreams, though, he is a successful writer with the world at his feet. Determined to exist in the better reality of the two, Meeks turns to drugs and alcohol to induce sleep, only to discover that he doesn't know which existence is real.
Twisted and dark, Meeks by Gabriel Tait is like a slow-moving train wreck that is impossible to ignore or turn away from. The plot is simple but packs an emotional punch. A man who is a nobody in a sea of nobodies slowly comes apart at the seams and slides into drug-fueled oblivion as he loses his grasp on reality and his mind. Disturbing themes of mental disease, addiction, hope, and despair are intricately laced together and add more gravitas to this tale. Outstanding character development is displayed through the protagonist, depicted as two very different individuals, and the many realistic minor characters. The pace is like a funeral procession, deliberate and grave, with a destination that is to be dreaded. Overall, Meeks is a superb psychological thriller that kept me guessing to the very end. It is a great read, and I can easily recommend it.
