Review: Exploitive Whiny Mess
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2012
I hate to disagree with all the other reviewers, but this is a mess.  I don't know what book they were reading to give such high stars to and  use words like "interesting" and "thought provoking" but trust me, it wasn't this one. I also notice that the other reviewers have all reviewed other books by the same author and given similar good marks.  I can only assume that there must be some personal connection to the author that skews their sense of what a good book really is.Let me count the ways this book fails...1.  Basic punctuation.  Missing apostrophes, missing LOTS of commas.2.  Poor formatting.  There should be a LOT more paragraphs.3.  Bad writing.  It rambles and repeats.  Rather than make a sentence like "Mama taught me how to (and a list of things)", instead there would be 10 sentences, listing each thing one by one.  This was done several times, in what I can only believe was an attempt to pad the book.4.  Padding and length.  This "book" is short.  Really short.  2,600 words.  That's less than 4 pages typed in Word.  It should be half that since it is obviously padded.  The author even double spaced it to try and stretch the pages out.  How dumb do you think we readers are?5.  Content.  There is no point here.  This "story" is a whiny letter from a 14 year old to his absentee father.  All it does is complain for 4 pages about his father never being there.  There's no point, no resolution, no growth, no acceptance, no depth, nothing.  Just 4 pages of whining. Contrary to what the others say, there is no forgiveness, no love, no comprehension of the complex issues involved when parents break up.6.  I have to wonder what the author is thinking in putting this up.  It this really was written by the author's child, I think it is the most exploitive thing I've seen in ages.  If it wasn't and is fictional, then there's no reason at all that it couldn't have been done in a way that had something to say.Readers- if you think you're going to find some deep and meaningful message or insight in this 'book', keep looking, it isn't here.  All you will get from it is that a 14 year old is mad at his father and has no knowledge or context for the adult dynamics that are probably in play. I'm sure most of us can get whining from teens at home without having to go out and buy it in a "book".