3 STARS If you’re looking for a happy ending, you’d better look elsewhere. This is just one long unrelenting, depressing series of events in the life of Butch, a 10 year old with a vivid imagination and an abusive father. He is prone to hyperbole so for a while I thought maybe his descriptions of his father were an exaggeration, but they were not. The man is a monster. The only glimmer of hope is toward the end when Butch realizes he holds some sway over his father because his father fears him telling the mother about the other women in his life. I kept putting the book down and walking away because it was bringing me down, stressing me out. After one particular scene in which his cousin is cornered by two older and bigger male cousins and Butch realizes something terrible is going to happen to her and NO ONE is going to protect her, I felt sick. No, the author didn’t describe anything, but the thought of it was enough to upset me. A good proportion of people in this book were terrible human beings, particularly Butch’s dad’s family. Descriptions of scenes were vivid and locations so clear and visceral that I shuddered at times. The description of Maw-Maw’s house was the first such description that made me go, ewww. Butch is afraid of being taken away and put in an orphanage, but I had to wonder why. The way he depicted his life sounded like hell, which is why I thought he must be exaggerating. It couldn’t be that bad. He was exaggerating. And it was that bad. An orphanage might have been an improvement. I want to give the author his due. The writing is wonderful, with descriptions like these: “The sun was a lava sledgehammer that some malicious fire spirit dropped hard and hot on their heads and shoulders, again and again.” “Something inside Butch wadded up and blew away, landing somewhere behind the car. Butch turned and caught a glimpse of it waving frantically in the heat shimmer.” Perhaps because of poetic phrases like the aforementioned, I continued reading beyond the point of pain. I really did not enjoy the book, but I loved the language used to tell the story. It’s really hard to rate a book like this because I recognize the skill that goes into telling the story, but I wish that talent had been directed toward telling a more pleasant one. I read to escape reality which, by the way, is much more pleasant than the fictional one in which Butch lives. I feel sad and icky after reading this book and wish that I hadn’t. That said, I would love to read something else from this author...something equally poetic, but more uplifting. May 23, 2020
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Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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