Book review: A mess of unexplained and forgotten storylines in The American Boyfriend

The American Boyfriend

By Ivy Ngeow
Mystery/Penguin Random House SEA/Paperback/220 pages/$17/Amazon SG (amzn.to/3SmQEA4)
2 stars

What promises to be an intriguing mystery fails to create any sense of tension as The American Boyfriend stumbles its way through a plot too convoluted for its own good.

The novel spends half its pages getting to the murder and the rest scattered among several plotlines that amount to a messy and random ending that left this reviewer wondering how such a series of events could occur.

Single mother Phoebe Wong is supposed to be on a romantic vacation with her daughter, Jojo, and long-distance boyfriend, Carter Hartwell. Instead, her purse is missing, with all their cards and passports in it, and Carter is delayed for reasons he refuses to explain.

Stuck in Key West, Florida, with nothing and no one, Phoebe finds solace in a group of locals who help her out, but one of them is murdered the day Carter arrives.

Malaysian author Ivy Ngeow has a master’s degree in writing from Middlesex University London, where she won the 2005 Literary Press Prize. Her debut novel Cry Of The Flying Rhino (2017) won the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong.

This is the London-based author’s second novel to be published by an Asian publisher.

The relationship between Carter and Phoebe, which began on LinkedIn, has almost no substance or basis. For an 11-month relationship, the two are practically strangers, having shared little of their past lives and marriages.

Later in the novel, Deputy Sharon Kaplinski summarises it in a single sentence: “You had four dates and then you’re getting married.”

Phoebe, intended to be an unreliable narrator of sorts, comes across as incapable of taking care of herself or her daughter.

Her lack of questions around Carter’s suspicious past and the events around her make it difficult to root for her, especially when most of her issues can be resolved by voicing a simple question.

One merit is the simplistic writing that makes the story accessible to most readers. Its short length alleviates some of the frustrations with the characters, particularly as Phoebe makes little effort to properly communicate with Carter while oscillating between being angry and in love with him.

An attempt to create tension through multiple perspectives falls flat as none of the character voices are well-developed or distinct enough to be differentiated.

Rather, their voices cloud the main storyline instead of laying out credible red herrings as intended.

A subplot hinting at an ongoing drug operation is implied to be a major deal, only to be dropped after the murder. Another plotline of failing medical equipment has virtually no set up or conclusion, despite being Carter’s main source of stress. The identity of Jojo’s father is alluded to have nefarious origins, but is never brought up again and it is unclear as to whether he died or divorced Phoebe.

Chapters leading to the major reveal are thrown together with such abruptness and sloppiness that it is nearly impossible to tell where the story is headed.

The resolution, if it can be called that, merely ties its plotlines together with a loose knot. It gives a sense that perhaps Ngeow did not know how to properly close each storyline and hoped that an attempt at happily-ever-after would be enough to make readers forget everything else.

If you like this, read: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (William Morrow, 2023, $15.27, Amazon SG, go to amzn.to/47bXmwZ). Jess arrives in Paris to find her brother missing. The longer he is gone, the more Jess wonders if his eclectic, unfriendly neighbours know more than they are letting on.