I rarely write reviews when I dislike a book, because I feel my opinion should not matter to another person when deciding whether or not to read a book, but this book was so disappointing and frustrating to read, that I need to vent. Anyone interested in this book should still read it, because it was a great story, but it was so poorly executed, that at times I found myself unable to concentrate on the pages, because thoughts of how it should have been written kept drowning out the words. I had to go back and reread pages so many times. My biggest complaint is with the fact that there is no character development whatsoever in this book. It makes everything seem like a cliche and characters just hollow shells. If I don't care about the characters, I don't care what happens to them. That's a given rule to writing. At one point the author even goes out of his way to avoid character development. I don't want to put spoilers in this review, but at one of the biggest plot points of the book, a time in which character development should be hard to avoid, this author does just that! He actually uses the words, "I don't want to tell you too much about ____, or how it affected me. As important and as personal as those things are..." It has to be the laziest writing I've ever seen. Read it and judge for yourself, but I am shocked by the poor execution of this book. It's a first draft at best.
Intense, violent and heartbreaking, but also poignant, often darkly funny and hard to put down.
