As a young adult, life can kick us down pretty hard. It's even worse as a poor college student who is forced to live as a vampire, working in a 24-hour convenience store. Jessica Abel's Life Sucks focuses on a young adult named Dave, who has a sucking start in adulthood, literally. He seems to find light at the tunnel after meeting Rosa, a young Latina who seeks to find love, but has no success. Dave's feelings for Rosa appear to be similar to many coming of age stories; he believes that she is the one for him, and will do anything to be with her.
Dave is bedazzled by Rosa who seems to have a similar attraction. His vulnerability and acts of being gullible is similar to many teens and young adults. Throughout the story, he takes every opportunity to hang out with Rosa. When Rosa invites him to go to the movies, Dave drops his plans of working that night to go with her. Dave's friend, Carl, attempts to bring him back to reality of having to work that night, as well as not having any money for the movies. Dave proceeds to get ready for the unexpected date night in hopes of borrowing money from Jerome, and persuading Jerome to work his shift. Many teens and young adults feel obligated to take every opportunity to be with their significant other, even if that means neglecting their priorities. In many cases, teens and young adults will be gullible enough to spend their last amount of money on their significant other, in order to show their attraction.
Many teens and young adults compete against each to other to be with a particular person. There is a similar situation between Dave and Wes, a cocky surfer-dude vampire, as they compete for Rosa's love. Though Wes doesn't necessarily want to be with Rosa, he does whatever it takes to make Dave's life miserable. For instance, after Dave and Rosa find seats in the movies, Wes coincidentally sits behind them, denying that he knew that Dave and Rosa have a movie date. Such acts are similar to a jock who wants revenge after having his/her significant other taken from a geek. In addition, it is common for teens to target one person to be attracted to, instead of realizing that there are more fish in the sea.
Rosa seems to have trouble finding love as she goes after who she wants and not what her mother wants. The true question is, does she really know who she wants to be with? She is so infatuated with being with someone that she is quite vulnerable to open her opportunities with anyone. She goes back and forth between Wes and Dave, similar to the character, Bella from the film, Twilight. With a hot and cold contrast between Wes and Dave, Rosa somehow finds herself attracted to both males, making it easy for her to be under the control of whomever makes the first initiative. When Dave attempts to brainwash her, she refers to him as "Master" (143), and follow his command. In a metaphorical sense, teens and young adults become hypnotized by having a strong attraction to someone, causing them to do whatever the other person says, since it is their way of having "true love" for someone.
Finding oneself and someone to share it with can be rather difficult during the teenage and young adult years. Many of us find ourselves in situations such as Dave and Rosa where we may think that we found love, but have a misconception of what true love is. Jessica Abel metaphorically demonstrates this by insinuating that life and love can suck the truth and happiness out of someone when interacting with certain people.
