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Book Review of When You Don't See Me (Manhattan, Bk 4)

When You Don't See Me (Manhattan, Bk 4)
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I have mixed feelings about this coming of age novel. It's mostly dark and cynical and only becomes less so toward the end. The protagonist is Nick, a 19 year old gay kid. As he sputters through his life, so does the book, making it hard to keep interested and keep reading. It took me a long time to read this book, mostly because I read other books in between.

I like a lot of the characters, Nick's coworkers, roommates and uncle's family and brother start off very two dimensional and eventually get developed. Sadly it takes too much time. The book certainly had a lot of potential, but it both never actually got there, yet where it did go was okay in the end. Here is what I really liked the book has a way of making you think about it and the story. Bizarre as it sounds, I cared about Nick, yet his melancholy was a downer.

Other books by this author are much better. If you read it, I don't think your life will be worse off it's not awful, it's just not great.