Book Review: SAVING BEN

Title: Saving Ben

Author: Ashley Farley
Publisher: Self-published
Pages: 241

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

Saving Ben from the clutches of her roommate Emma is rich girl Katherine ‘Kitty’ Langley’s only goal. The two siblings are extremely close and have always had each other’s back, a comfort against their mother’s selfishness and their father’s blind desire to appease and please his wife at all costs.

Going off to college, Kitty hopes to put her family drama behind her and enjoy college life to the fullest. Roommate Emma is beautiful and fun to be with and at the beginning, both Kitty and she get along well. Until Emma begins to show off her psychopathic and manipulative side and Ben loses himself in a more-off-than-on relationship with Emma, as she lies and schemes her way through life, wanting a sugar daddy for herself.

At first Kitty gives Emma the benefit of the doubt, but then she sees how deeply Ben is in thrall of her. Ben steadily loses weight and becomes addicted to drugs, eventually losing control of himself and failing to distinguish between right and wrong actions.

Will Emma destroy Ben or will Kitty be able to save him?

A subplot revolves around the childhood best friends of Ben and Kitty. Siblings George and Abigail Turner. Abigail is being bullied at school and she gives in to anorexia, eventually dying from the disease.

The book is written in the first person past tense point of view of Kitty. It starts in the present on New Year’s Day, then leads us back to a time 16 months ago when Ben and Kitty first met Emma, then slowly leads us back to the present again.

I thought the friendships between the young people were drawn out very well. Even Reed and Spotty, Ben’s fraternity friends, become protective of Kitty. In turn, Kitty has her own close friendship with Archer and with Abigail.

I liked the character of Blessy. She should have been given more space in the book, instead of making her a cleaner of other people’s messes.

There is the sounding of a cautionary note, indirectly informing young adult readers that drugs ruin lives and how the use of drugs adversely affects one’s personality and character, that nothing is worth getting depressed over, that life is beautiful, and that one should seek help if one feels unhappy, how we should seek out our friends and keep in touch always. 

I liked the fact that Kitty has a goal; she wants to be a nurse, and that she encourages Ben to pursue a career as a chef, not study business management just because the family business awaits him. I also liked the subplot about the need to forgive and reconcile with one's family members.

Kitty seems to be a poor judge of character, first with Emma and then with another character Maddie Maloney, who Kitty first admires greatly, then sees how malicious she is. Even in Emma’s case, Kitty continues to make allowances for Emma’s behaviour for a long time, even though she has been cheated by her.

There are far too many flashbacks in the book, and I got a little tired of the siblings' childhood stories.

There were some questions that remained unanswered. Why does Emma drug Kitty and Ben? It doesn’t look like she has any nefarious plan up her sleeve.

When Emma goes missing, disappearing from a house full of young people, Ben and Kitty first have the presence of mind to call the police. But very quickly, it appears, that they take leave of their senses as they open her car and search through her things, compromising the evidence, even though the police are still in the house at this point.

There were a few proofing errors too. Thompson, Kitty’s boyfriend, had the ‘p’ in his name dropped unceremoniously on one page.

The ending seems forced. The subplot is eventually made to connect with the main plot, but not in a very convincing manner.