Review: Just Don't Mess With Us, Family Matters by Andrew Ashling
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2012
This is a funny romp but do not search a realistic story in here; unless you don't compare it to some frat house type of story where the boys involved always try to prove that, under 21 years old you are really not an adult. Don't get mistaken by the cover, there is very little of innocence or naivete in this book.Actually one of the four boys, Matt, is 22 years old, and then there is Jason, 19, Jamie, 17 and Alan, the narrative voice, 19. Alan doesn't say much about how they are together, I did my own version, probably Matt found all three of them in different moment and they ended living together in Matt's house. Since there is no parents in the picture, and apparently no one of them is working, actually Jamie is still going to high school, my idea is that Matt is a trust fund boy and he is maintaining all of them. If you are wondering how Jamie, that is underage, is allowed to live with them, add to the picture that Jason is a tech wizard and not they are "officially" brothers, even if nothing brotherly is happening between them. Matt, Alan, Jason and Jamie are in a foursome, and apparently it's working really well, and that is the main incipit of each chapter, that is a single story of its own: Alan wants to prove to the reader how good they are together and how they can overcome all issues.I have to say that some of the tricks they organize against people who did them wrong are really wicked, to a level that I almost felt pity for the object of their vengeance. Truth, it's a backslash, they attack only when attacked, but nevertheless they are merciless. That is where the not-realistic side of the story comes into view, it feels a little impossible for them to not being questioned, but I don't think realism was what the author was searching, this is a funny romp, and as such, it accomplishes its task.Building the story in this way, each chapter a story of its own, allow the author to have an endlessly source of inspiration; Matt, Alan, Jason and Jamie's story is not a circle that is closed with the last chapter, but it's more like a series of vignettes, and if the author likes them, as I think, they are always there ready for more "devil" adventures.