DONE
WRITTEN BY JULIET ROSE
REVIEW WRITTEN BY JOE COMPTON
PREQUEL TO DO OVER & WE DON'T MATTER
RELEASED: JULY 8TH, 2025
PUBLISHER: ABOVE THE RAIN COLLECTIVE
LENGTH: 297 PAGES
GENRE: COMING OF AGE/DRAMA
SYNOPSIS: When Casey Duncan goes on a search to find his biological father, he has no idea the family secrets he will uncover and the tragedy that started his young life. Struggling with addiction and the need for revenge against an attacker, Casey finds himself lost at every turn, wanting to let go and leave their small beach town behind.
With the help of his best friend, Smith, Casey challenges his existence, attempting to discover where he belongs and who he is outside of drugs. Only by facing his family's past can he understand the emptiness inside himself and find a way to hold on.
Part of that is the setting. I love how I could close our eyes and smell the ocean air, feel the thickness of the atmosphere. How I felt claustrophobic in the tiny apartments, houses, and trailers of this story. How I could smell the grease of the diner and have the compulsion for a burger and some fries. How I could feel its fluorescents blindly as they reflected off the linoleum floor. Hardly any of it is written outright, like fodder or info dump, it is just that richness that comes from the characters, their interactions, their emotions, that you can't help but have such a great sense of where you are and why you are there.
The writing here is exquisite because it doesn't just play out as a typical addiction spiralling story. In fact, it's almost a red herring, almost. Don't get me wrong, there are some heavy themes and real-life shit dealt with, and there is also cause and effect, and consequences for choices here due to the addiction aspect, but this is so deeply enriching about the human soul and its search for meaning and belonging.
With the help of his best friend, Smith, Casey challenges his existence, attempting to discover where he belongs and who he is outside of drugs. Only by facing his family's past can he understand the emptiness inside himself and find a way to hold on.
This book was #6 on my favorite Indie reads of 2025. What I think I love the most is how real it feels and reads. There are no gimmicks here, no creatures, no viruses, no supernatural elements to be had. Just real people experiencing grief, addiction, isolation, assimilation, and justification. Casey is one of those characters that will equally frustrate you, while enduring you to his plight and experiences, and the fact that we get to be a passenger on his journey is one of those special touches that made this book so memorable.
Part of that is the setting. I love how I could close our eyes and smell the ocean air, feel the thickness of the atmosphere. How I felt claustrophobic in the tiny apartments, houses, and trailers of this story. How I could smell the grease of the diner and have the compulsion for a burger and some fries. How I could feel its fluorescents blindly as they reflected off the linoleum floor. Hardly any of it is written outright, like fodder or info dump, it is just that richness that comes from the characters, their interactions, their emotions, that you can't help but have such a great sense of where you are and why you are there.
Another strength here is the enduring ancillary characters that add so much depth and provide us with outlets to get what we need from Casey or to act in our stead as judge, jury, friends, and counselors. Natalie is my favorite of the bunch. I love her instincts, her no-nonsense approach, but how she is not mean or vindictive about it, more fair and honest. You get the sense she has seen it all and plays chess while everyone else plays checkers. It's hard not to love Smith, he's like if Spicolli grew up but wanted to much to hold on to Spicolli, or smile when Aiden is around, who is like the road sign that you needed to see to let you know you are almost home. I also love that we get characters who surprise us, that change in our eyes and in Casey's. This is something Juliet has always been good at, and I was glad to see it pop up in a story like this, too.
The writing here is exquisite because it doesn't just play out as a typical addiction spiralling story. In fact, it's almost a red herring, almost. Don't get me wrong, there are some heavy themes and real-life shit dealt with, and there is also cause and effect, and consequences for choices here due to the addiction aspect, but this is so deeply enriching about the human soul and its search for meaning and belonging.
As I have said before, Juliet may be the best 1st Act writer I have ever read, and this set up is no exception. In fact, I love how we get most of the cards on the table, only to see we haven't gotten all of them just yet. The foreshadowing here is phenomenal, but honestly, the 3rd act here is so strong and so amazing that it really stands out. I love how we get no stones unturned, we get call backs from the 1st act, and we get some much-needed reward for the time invested here, even when its told to us and not seen with our own eyes. Make no mistakes about it, I would not cash that investment in for anything, the satisfaction I felt putting this book down was like that first sip of coffee you savor, you smell it, and it lives up to the sensation that fills your nostrils when it touches your taste buds. Making you only want to drink more and maybe even dunk a donut in it.
That's the awesome part, there is more, a couple donuts so to speak. While this book was written well after Do Over and We Don't Matter, they are a part of this story and connect some dots for us who have read those books already. Now I will say I really want to go back and reread those, having this context, because I think, especially for We Don't Matter, the parts I didn't "get" might make more sense.
Again, a testament to something I think may be the most impressive aspect of why I love Juliet Rose books. She keeps getting better and better with every book. If this story had been written in the natural, linear progression it is intended, I don't know that I am talking about this book, in this way. I am really grateful to have had this book and read it this year, it is something I didn't know I needed but glad I had.
YOU CAN CHECK OUT DONE FOR YOURSELF HERE.
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