Review: bleak
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2012
This tale was almost unrelentingly bleak. At times the bleakness receded briefly, but these were only a temporary respite. And the plot meandered a bit too realistically like the drifting life of a young person who was abused, emotionally abandoned, confused,and repressed.It was just painful to be with this broken, almost hopeless kid page after page as he moved from one set of lousy circumstances to the next. I don't have the stamina or desire to slog through a life so foundationless and so emotionally painful and bereft. In real life, there is no greater point to this kind of experience. One doesn't come out of it saying, "Gee, I'm really glad my parents weren't fit to raise children. It taught me that ..." or "Aren't I lucky that my substitute family also abandoned me just before high school. It made me realize that ..."Yep, awful circumstances like here (and worse) are a daily reality for hundreds of thousands of kids in the U.S. - millions around the world. But in fiction, I want there to be a point. At the end of this book, there was a sense that things were going to improve somewhat. But clearly, even more terrible things were also going to hit the fan. I appreciated the quality of the writing, and that the first volume was free, but I'm just not getting on this ride again.And to anyone out there living this type of life, or worse, remember, "it gets better." It really does. Google the Trevor Project.