So, let’s talk about how much I hated this book.
Well…hate is a strong word, but appropriate in this case. I just didn’t enjoy reading this. As I did, my reaction to the story would ebb and flow: at times the story was interesting (therefore, I kept reading) and other times it would get really, really boring (and I would question why I didn’t just give up on this). I guess I could have stopped reading it, but by the time I thought about it, I figured I was past the point of no return–I was about halfway done at that point–so I stuck with it, hoping the end would be satisfying. Nope. No cigar.
To be specific, the main things I disliked (other than the plot) were the timeline and the characters themselves. The story takes place in a short amount of time, but it jumps around quite a bit; I had to re-orient myself because it wasn’t always clear that we were in a flashback. As for the characters, the teenage boys didn’t have very realistic voices. They said “yo” a lot and talked about girls and sex, but at times their dialogue sounded nothing like real teenagers. That was distracting. Lastly, I didn’t sympathize with the characters. I thought the protagonist/sometimes narrator Tim was interesting, but he didn’t redeem the novel for me. That’s another thing I didn’t like–the narrative shifted between first person point of view in the form of journal entries, to third person omniscient, then back to first person. Again, just distracting for me.
I was going to summarize the plot, but you know…suffice it to say that the plot was disjointed and wrapped up in a very contrived way. I was ready for a creepy, possibly supernatural story, but this one really disappointed me, so I can’t recommend it. The funny thing is, both Stephen King and Neil Gaiman loved the book, which is what had peaked my interest in it to begin with. Different strokes…
