I hate that my first post is covering a book I didn’t particularly like, but I would be negating the purpose of the blog if I didn’t comment on everything I read. This book was recommended to me by a Barnes and Noble team member one day as I was perusing the new fiction section of the store. She was adamant about how fantastic the story was and how real the situations were (that should have tipped me off immediately considering this book totters on the brink of science fiction). But, the back cover was amusing, the plot seemed interesting and, to be quite honest, the cover reminded me of something that would conceal some great indie tale in the vein of Juno. I am ashamed to say I judged this book by its cover.
Narrated by Darren, a sophomore at a Valley high school, the story begins with the internal monologue of a deeply cynical and seemingly apathetic teenage boy who likes to draw. He is befriended by Eric, a boy who does not have to sleep and couldn’t if he wanted to. Together, they begin to create TimeBlaze, a mystical mash up of epic movies, comic book series and an RPG to fill in any missing segments of the story. Through a twist of fate, Darren begins dating Christine, who later cheats on him with Eric, who dumps Christine in order to salvage the only friendship he has ever known. During his “I hate Eric” period, Darren shares Eric’s secret about not being able to sleep (dubbed “Eric’s thing” in the novel) leading to Eric being hunted by the police and some otherworldly source, which turns out is a figment of Eric’s imagination from TimeBlaze come to life. Sound like a telenovela? Yeah. That’s what I thought too.
The action doesn’t really kick in until the last four chapters, which feel rushed and underdeveloped. As I was reading, I continually told myself that the next page would be better, which ended up not being the case. I wanted the chase scenes, the action, but all I was given was a 20 page resolution that brought the main character back to the exact place he started ala Napoleon Dynamite. Darren’s final thought left to the reader is his remorse for tattling on Eric, who is captured and never heard from again.
Regardless of how I personally felt about the novel, I found the point-of-view interesting and maybe a little informative, if nothing else. I have spent the past few years working at a local high school. As I was reading, I could pinpoint certain characters as students and other people I attended high school with. The perspective was one that I could have never experienced, being female. This book provided insight to the teenage boy’s mind, and while I know not all teenage boys think or act in the way the two main characters do, it would be remiss of me to imagine that NONE do.
Overall, the book has a few sex scenes that don’t seem to have any purpose, multiple instances of drug use and justification for drug use, underage drinking, and it seems the author was trying to find a way to fit in as many F-words as possible. Maybe this was intentional to enhance the tone, but I think it just reflects a total lack of proper word choice. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
-Harper
No comments:
Post a Comment