Author: DarkWolf13

Genre: General fiction

What I liked about this book:

It was MUCH MUCH better than the previous book I reviewed for this individual (which I then pulled because I reviewed the wrong book by mistake). It shows a huge amount of improvement, though there is still work to do, and I'd like to see this author keep reaching for more.

The tone is very conversational, and it flows very nicely. The dialogue is realistic and makes sense, as do most of the character interactions. There are also parts that do a nice job of rendering emotion.

What I did NOT like about this book:

For all that emotional power, there was nothing behind it. The pacing was very fast, so sad things started happening before I even got to know Xavier, and for that reason I didn't really care that bad things were happening to him. I felt like I'd been dropped in the middle of a book that should have already had a bunch of stuff laid out, but it did not. Instead the character just told me about events that had already occurred.

If the author took us back a few months and told us just about Dad's death, and not all the random stuff about homecoming (or even better, tied these into Dad's death better), this would be a very emotionally powerful book. But right now, it falls flat.

Overall:

Eh. This has a lot of potential but it's not hitting the mark for me.

Rating: 

5/10. I gave an extra star because of how much improvement this author has shown.