One of my fave parts of the book was being introduced to Mycroft's room and essentially Mycroft too. We get a lot of his personality from this scene.
Mycroft's door has a hand-lettered sign, The Stranger's Room, taped to it along with a bunch of other crap: a poster for The Chemical Brothers, a sign saying WARNING: Safety Glasses Must Be Worn at All Times, and a yellow plaque with the universal black skull-and-crossbones danger symbol. I can hear the unmistakeable thump of The Knack oozing from behind the wood veneer.
I rap twice. 'Oi! It's me!'
The door is flung wide. The music is suddenly much louder. A fug of cigarette smoke escapes from the room, taking off for the stratosphere by way of the hall ceiling.
Mycroft stands there with a fag dangling from his lips, nodding along to 'My Sharona' like one of those floppy-headed dogs that sit on the dashboard. He's wearing a burgundy velveteen robe, loosely belted over cotton boxer shorts. His cuts and bruises stand out, and his hair looks particularly frightful.
'About bloody time.' The cigarette wobbles, spills ash onto the carpet. 'I'm starving.'
He puts his hands on his hips and his robe gapes.
'For god's sake, Mycroft, get your gear on. That's more than I really need to see.
The minute I saw the name My Sharona, I heard the song coming out of the book. That very, The Knack's beat, for this song. It just gave this whole 3D feel to being in Mycroft's room with him all burgundy..ed up and nodding to the beat. What can I say, it is my vintage.
Ellie has thrown in some serious issues along the way that show us Mycroft in a different light. A lad that is carrying a lot of pain about with him.
'Thanks, Watts. For getting me squared away.'
What I will say is Ellie gave me such a distraction with Mycroft and Watts.
They are a wonderful escapism to read.
'I can already see you in ripped fishnets, knee pads and a crash helmet,'Mycroft says in a thoughtful voice. 'Your name would be ... Whacker Watts!'
I really do love them. They have only known each other four months but they gel. I couldn't really imagine these two apart from each other. I see them with little genius kids who are bopping to My Sharona. We can see that Mycroft wouldn't do well without Watts in his life.
'How can someone so smart be such an utter moron? What on earth were you thinking?'
'I WASN'T BLOODY THINKING, okay?'
What I liked was Ellie made the two families, real Aussie battlers. Watt’s family has fallen on hard times and everybody is doing the best they can to get through the day. Nobody is enjoying the job they have, but they are doing what they have to do to pay the bills, put food on the table.
Mycroft’s situation is a little different, a little sadder.
A little lonelier.
His personality, I really absorbed. He has many sides to him. He can be a bit of a hermit when he chooses to be, being anti social to Watt’s family who feeds him, yet he is a bit of a lad about town with all the people he knows that can get him from A to B and a free Baklava . He knows how to work being penniless to his advantage.
'Is there a tram driver in this city you aren't on a first-name basis with?' I ask as I flump down. I'm still stinging from the 'country girl' thing. 'I mean, there's Sharman on the school run, and Glenda on Saturdays. We had Cheryl last week -'
'Nick only does alternating months.' Mycroft checks the thermos and tries to shove it further into his backpack but it won't go. 'The racing keeps him busy.'
'You didn't answer my question.'
He blinks at me. 'Well, Watts, I'll let you in on a secret: people, if you talk to them, often talk back. Staggering concept, I know. And not freqently applied to in the city, but I'm an old-fashioned guy. Chatting's not a crime, is it?'
Yet at the same time, he brings on negativity from his peers by breaking rules, spontaneously, deliberately. He has bigger things on his mind than to worry about little rules. They just get in his way.
I really liked the ending. I was on the edge of my chair, so to speak. I felt very , very tense. I liked the villain. You can’t pick the motive and the weapon. That was a cool twist. A clever well thought out villain.
The blurb for Every Word # 2 in the series is already telling me something from what I read in Every Breath.
Ellie drops seeds in this book for Every Word # 2. Look for them, you will find them.
I am intrigued to know more. I am interested to see how penniless Mycroft makes it to London. Again were there seeds dropped in this installment? Well there may have been. All I know is Mycroft and Watts may be doing it hard now financially but with their brains, they will go on to much better things eventually, financially. You can’t be this intelligent and stay an Aussie battler.
Oh and he sounds like a gorgeous kisser, too.
'Bossy, aren't you?' He's grinning as he heads for the door. 'Stay over one night, and it's all do this, do that, get me tea - '
