Review: Brilliantly written coming of age tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 27, 2014
I received this book as a gift.Jumping into this story, I knew I would experience a coming-of-age story. It was easy enough to discern that from the blurb of the story, but I didn’t expect everything else I got while reading this story.I read a lot of paranormal romance and even write it so I’m no stranger to darker situations but with this story, it wasn’t that kind of dark. It was dark in the sense that it was real and gritty and you could not help but feel for Evil. (that poor girl and the reason she has that name let me tell you. Ugh.) The struggles this young woman faced, I would not wish on my worst enemy.There were bright spots though and oh goodness they were GREAT bright spots. Dopey and Jim. If it weren’t for these two unique individuals, I can only imagine where she would have ended up. Jim is her brother and he’s the kind of brother, minus a few imperfections that I would want for any young girl. He was protective (almost to a point where you wanted to beat him up lol) and caring with her. Enter Dopey. I fell for Dopey. There was just something so inherently soft and right about him, right from the point where he speaks for the first time.These characters were well developed and by that I mean they were real. I wasn’t a fan of the drug use, but if I look at it from a realistic standpoint, this happens every single day, but kids even younger then the ones displayed in the story and with the hell they were all living with, I actually started to see a bit of a need for it. At least in terms of the escape.The story was paced well too. It didn’t slow down at points or lose me along the way from moving too fast and not sharing enough information. There was enough given to make me feel a part of this universe and I loved every second of this story. I am so glad I took the chance with this author. I cannot wait to read more from her in the future.I rated this 4 stars and I feel the need to say why. The ending. I’m not sure if it was written that way for the possibility of another story with these characters in the future or if the author just wanted to end it that way, but something about it was missing for me. I loved the happy ending part. I just hoped to see more of it. As for the real part that upset me. Jim. I think I missed something so I went back and read through it a few times just to be sure. His end in this (even though the story really wasn’t about him) feels unfinished.Honestly though, overall, this book it’s brilliant. Anyone looking for a good coming of age tale with a perfectly drawn out romance in the pages (but not overly drowning in it), needs to give this book a try. It was worth the time spent. It was the perfect book to get lost in for a few hours.