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Review Date: 3/13/2015
At first I liked the book, but I ended up not caring much for it pretty quickly. (*Warning: Spoilers!*)
Firstly, the story proceeded at a fair enough pace, but then was long and drawn out. The battle of the snakes against the 3 kids took far too long to detail. He kept re-telling parts from different people's eyes which felt like just a way to drag it out.
Second, some things didn't have proper placement. Back to the scene of the snake battle, there were two characters that didn't seem to really have much of a place. The story would have played out exactly the same had they not been there.
Another instance of misplaced characters was some of the back story on evil woman from the beginning of the book. Her history seemed to have no place where it landed in the book.
Lastly, there was serious lack of cohesion and description of events that played out. For example, when Mason shot the snake point blank when it was biting Junior's chest. The way it was worded suggested that the snake was basically obliterated right at that moment, but then suddenly, it was being obliterated some more. Really? I don't think the writer had a good grasp of how to describe what he was seeing in his mind's eye. And the pacing of his descriptions were also off.
All in all, I thought this was going to be a fun book and it had me entranced for quite a while. It quickly fell out of my favor and I put it aside. Such a shame... First book I've ever done that with, too.
Firstly, the story proceeded at a fair enough pace, but then was long and drawn out. The battle of the snakes against the 3 kids took far too long to detail. He kept re-telling parts from different people's eyes which felt like just a way to drag it out.
Second, some things didn't have proper placement. Back to the scene of the snake battle, there were two characters that didn't seem to really have much of a place. The story would have played out exactly the same had they not been there.
Another instance of misplaced characters was some of the back story on evil woman from the beginning of the book. Her history seemed to have no place where it landed in the book.
Lastly, there was serious lack of cohesion and description of events that played out. For example, when Mason shot the snake point blank when it was biting Junior's chest. The way it was worded suggested that the snake was basically obliterated right at that moment, but then suddenly, it was being obliterated some more. Really? I don't think the writer had a good grasp of how to describe what he was seeing in his mind's eye. And the pacing of his descriptions were also off.
All in all, I thought this was going to be a fun book and it had me entranced for quite a while. It quickly fell out of my favor and I put it aside. Such a shame... First book I've ever done that with, too.
Review Date: 10/29/2011
I could not put this book down. Every time I did, I kept coming back to it, reading it in hopes of finding hope. Hard to take in what he went through, but it has a powerful and moving ending. Makes you realize that if he can overcome his hardships, you can overcome your own.
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