Unlucky Mel by Aggeliki Pelekidis

Unlucky Mel is a quirky, yet serious story about the often difficult road to self-discovery, and how, ultimately, we’re responsible for the choices we make.

Copy received in exchange for an honest review.

Unlucky Mel is a thoroughly entertaining story that exposes the cut-throat nature of the world of academia and how folks are often reluctant to lend a helping hand.

Synopsis

Unlucky Mel revolves around Melody Hollings who suffers rotten luck in several of her professional endeavors.

Even when she commits time and effort to review the works of her colleague, Ben, she gets no such favor in return- Ben takes the entire summer to read her book, prioritizing the work of another colleague, while failing to provide any useful critique of her work.

This is despite Mel’s commitment to helping Ben, including reviewing his work, driving him around campus, and feeding him on several instances, despite her own boyfriend’s skepticism and obvious disapproval.

Given how highly she’s come to regard Ben professionally, his negative feedback crushes her spirit, further fuelling her doubts, and making her question if she’s indeed the wonderful writer that others say she is.

Embittered by Ben’s scathing review, and deep betrayal she goes on a revenge mission to undermine Ben, all the while struggling to care for her mentally challenged father, while faced with disappointment in her frantic search for jobs, receiving constant rejections, which only further dampens her resolve.

Faced with several obstacles, Melody Hollins has to navigate her emotions and ultimately come out a better version of herself.

Imbalanced friendships

I think Ben is a self-serving mf. In the beginning, Melody viewed his achievements as perks of being male (cause he was audacious) but I don’t think it’s a male thing, he was just not a very nice human. However, in the end, Ben realizes how selfish he is (not many people come to that point)

Knowing and doing something about it are two different things though, but we wouldn’t know anything about if he really changed because Melody doesn’t see the need to service the friendship anymore.

Personality struggles

Aggeliki Pelekidis did a very good job of describing Mel’s struggle as one who has had to be a caregiver to her father for most if not all of her life. In Unlucky Mel, we see first-hand the conflicting feeling of wanting to explore one’s individuality without being saddled by the needs of another and wanting to care for a loved one.

Her lack of confidence in herself and her idolization of Ben’s work as an accomplished writer made her blind to her own progress after receiving shitty feedback from Ben.

The journey of uncertainties, imposter syndrome, and getting her confidence conveys the reality of having the right people around you and identifying these people, having the right mindset, and never shutting yourself down.

Verdict

Unlucky Mel is a quirky, yet serious story about the often difficult road to self-discovery, and how, ultimately, we’re responsible for the choices we make.

Melody’s journey through her Creative Writing program ought to be read by everyone struggling with self-doubt, and comes highly recommended for graduate students uncertain about the future and dealing with imposter syndrome.