[COMPLETED]
Twenty-five-year old Gunner Shaw is a drug addict, and his girlfriend is hopelessly drowning in the sorrow of raising their daughter without his support. From one high to the next, and from one job to the next, it can only be so long unt...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
And with this, the magnificent tale of Audrey and Gunner Shaw has reached its end.
I truly cannot tell you how sad I am that their story is over. Since last year, these two have managed to work themselves so deep into my heart that ending this story is putting me in pain. If I could, I think I would write about these two forever, but I know it's not realistic to do so.
With regards to a few plot points or character points, I'm writing this note to smooth over a few things that maybe weren't clearly addressed throughout the story. To clear up the timeline, this story took place from 2013-2014. The one-year later epilogue brought us to 2015.
As you know, Audrey Rahal (Shaw) was sixteen years old when she met Gunner, and he was eighteen at the time. Central Park plays a huge theme in this book because it was where they both met for the first time and it signifies the start of their story together, hence why it's constantly being repeated. Obviously, you do not know the entire story behind their getting together and getting to this point in time, but not to worry, that will soon be addressed.
Audrey doesn't seem like a very complex character on the surface. She's a young mother struggling to provide for her family, which doesn't really give you much context about her. But further on, you started to see her character not only undergo drastic changes but noticed revelations about who she was during and prior to meeting Gunner. Her family was living in NY, clearly well off, and she had big dreams just like anyone else.
Her pregnancy with Leah certainly did hinder her life only because she was such a young girl. That being said, she didn't have someone to guide her throughout her battles. What do you expect a sixteen-year-old girl to know about children? Probably not much. And as you could tell, her parents abandoning her really set the tone for the rest of her character development.
Not only that, but I did subtly hint at depression. The depression didn't just start when she miscarried or when Leah was taken away; she had been living with it all these years and it's never gone away. That's the thing about depression–you can hide it from others or convince yourself otherwise, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not there.
But overall, Audrey was really a strong woman, mother and wife. She's been through hell and she's still standing, which is why I admire her character most of all.
Next is Gunner. He's our alcoholic and drug user. Throughout the story, I've read comments about people's frustrations as to why he's not getting better or considering help, and that's because he can't. Addiction is a strange thing. You can never force an addict to seek help when they're in denial, and even if you do, there's no saying that they won't relapse. Hence why Gunner had fallen back into his habit so many times.
His character was the most complex only because there were so many sides to him. We've seen him angry, scared, loving, depressed, and heartbroken, and it all happened to add to his growth and development as a person.
He wasn't this super dad that Leah and Audrey could count on–he was intimidated by being a father, scared to disappoint his daughter and wife. Remember, he was only nineteen when he became a father. What could he have possibly known at the time? He and Audrey had to learn everything about being parents on their own. Yeah, so they've both struggled. He didn't know the first thing about parenting and he still hasn't become the greatest father yet.
But what makes him human, right? By the end, I was extremely happy that he took that final step and admitted he had a problem and took measures to fix it.
In Chapter 37 I said:
I just want to remind you that addicts go through these problems and they face obstacles that prevent them from getting treatment.
They are in denial and believe they can quit whenever they want, and the problem is they can't but are too afraid it admit it to themselves. They fear the detox process and they fear changing because they've fallen into a habit with the same substances and people. And so many addicts can relapse, which sets off the question of why bother trying when this could all be for naught?
All these things go through Gunner's mind when he thinks of rehab, so that's why it's hard for him to even consider the possibility. He's not perfect, he's extremely flawed; he's selfish, a bad father figure, insecure, afraid, alone, anxious and withdrawn from himself and his family. He's not changing overnight so don't hope for that or else you'll be very disappointed.
Audrey's got her flaws too - she's passive-aggressive, terrible at communicating her feelings, naïve and too trusting for her own good. None of my characters are perfect. I'm trying to keep things as realistic as possible and the truth is there is struggle in people's lives. I feel like a quick happy ending won't suffice for this story. I have to remain down-to-earth when I'm writing about them.
As much as I want to make him say, "I'm ready for rehab", I just can't. It's a process, a real-life thing that people go through. None of this 'love will save the day' cliché crap. Audrey and Gunner are in love, but it won't magically fix all their problems. They'll work through it like human beings should and hopefully reap good results.
It's more than saying "I'm ready" because a lot of things go through their minds. I wanted to reiterate that point.
As for Leah, you can imagine how tough it is for a little girl to go through so much. Foster care, fights, parental disputes...so it's affected her just as much too.
I can go on rambling about every single thing, but there's too much to even touch on deeply without writing a whole in-depth analysis. So I'm going to cut it short here.
I want to first thank each and every person who has read A Place We Know and shown it their support and dedication. This couldn't have been possible without any of you. You have my heartfelt gratitude and I am forever grateful.
Just as an aside, I will start re-editing for grammar and spelling soon, so if you see an update, I'm just cleaning things up a bit.
Once again, I'd like to thank you for your time and dedication! Till the next book!
