Review of A Bloody Book
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cheyselena
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- Latest Review: A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen
Review of A Bloody Book
[Following is a volunteer review of "A Bloody Book" by Chris Bowen.]
A Bloody Book written by Chris Bowen is a story of a young boy who was asked to write an assignment on when he officially stopped giving a crap about school. A Bloody Book being the assignment that he should have turned in a long time ago. It goes through important correlating moments in Maxx’s life, the protagonist to reach the moment he stopped caring. Maxx’s story contains murder, struggle, and substance abuse through class in school and being at home dealing with lousy parents.
This story has many positive aspects including subliminal lessons being taught through Maxx's memories of school and class with Mr.Foxx. At first, it’s made to seem like Maxx’s teacher doesn't care himself but it comes to light that Mr.Foxx, just isn't like the rest of the teachers as far as his approach to teaching is concerned. Instead of focusing on tests and lesson plans, Mr.Foxx focuses more on digging deeper into why the kids aren't putting their full effort in. For example in one class during an exercise, he said, “So, maybe I was asking too much too soon. I’m getting ahead of myself. Look, before I make any of you take some responsibility, let’s take a minute and acknowledge some of the ugly stuff that’s working against most of you. So…what I want you to do is go stand under the banner that most represents some of the crap you know in your life.”
A negative aspect of this book is that although Mr.Foxx does have a different approach to teaching, some things that are said by him and sometimes by the narrator could be deemed offensive. An example would be the time he asked his students to identify the correlating holidays with their coloring pages. When Maxx told Mr.Foxx that his coloring page of a rabbit with a basket and eggs represents Easter Mr.Foxx responded with, “Wrong. Easter is a Christian holiday, celebrating that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after being brutally tortured with his hands and feet nailed to a cross of wood. You see any of that in your picture?” I shook my head. “I’ll tell you, that would make a heck of a coloring page, wouldn’t it?”. Another negative aspect is that the description, as well as the introduction to the book, is misleading. It is made to seem like this book would be bloody when that's not necessarily the case in retrospect.
I’d personally give A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen a 3 out of 4 stars because although it was an enjoyable book, it was poorly edited. The first-person perspective gave the book somewhat of a unique taste with Maxx’s narration. Even though it went deep into the trauma of Maxx’s childhood, the narration was still comical. At first, everything did seem a bit scattered but it all pulled together well in the end. Overall this was a good book I'd personally read again.
This book would be good for teens of all ages. There's slight profanity and violence but nothing vulgar or sexually inappropriate. For adults who are more into action-based books, I wouldn't recommend this. Chris Bowen’s, A Bloody Book would probably be more enjoyed by people who like comedy or slight suspense.
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A Bloody Book
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
A Bloody Book written by Chris Bowen is a story of a young boy who was asked to write an assignment on when he officially stopped giving a crap about school. A Bloody Book being the assignment that he should have turned in a long time ago. It goes through important correlating moments in Maxx’s life, the protagonist to reach the moment he stopped caring. Maxx’s story contains murder, struggle, and substance abuse through class in school and being at home dealing with lousy parents.
This story has many positive aspects including subliminal lessons being taught through Maxx's memories of school and class with Mr.Foxx. At first, it’s made to seem like Maxx’s teacher doesn't care himself but it comes to light that Mr.Foxx, just isn't like the rest of the teachers as far as his approach to teaching is concerned. Instead of focusing on tests and lesson plans, Mr.Foxx focuses more on digging deeper into why the kids aren't putting their full effort in. For example in one class during an exercise, he said, “So, maybe I was asking too much too soon. I’m getting ahead of myself. Look, before I make any of you take some responsibility, let’s take a minute and acknowledge some of the ugly stuff that’s working against most of you. So…what I want you to do is go stand under the banner that most represents some of the crap you know in your life.”
A negative aspect of this book is that although Mr.Foxx does have a different approach to teaching, some things that are said by him and sometimes by the narrator could be deemed offensive. An example would be the time he asked his students to identify the correlating holidays with their coloring pages. When Maxx told Mr.Foxx that his coloring page of a rabbit with a basket and eggs represents Easter Mr.Foxx responded with, “Wrong. Easter is a Christian holiday, celebrating that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after being brutally tortured with his hands and feet nailed to a cross of wood. You see any of that in your picture?” I shook my head. “I’ll tell you, that would make a heck of a coloring page, wouldn’t it?”. Another negative aspect is that the description, as well as the introduction to the book, is misleading. It is made to seem like this book would be bloody when that's not necessarily the case in retrospect.
I’d personally give A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen a 3 out of 4 stars because although it was an enjoyable book, it was poorly edited. The first-person perspective gave the book somewhat of a unique taste with Maxx’s narration. Even though it went deep into the trauma of Maxx’s childhood, the narration was still comical. At first, everything did seem a bit scattered but it all pulled together well in the end. Overall this was a good book I'd personally read again.
This book would be good for teens of all ages. There's slight profanity and violence but nothing vulgar or sexually inappropriate. For adults who are more into action-based books, I wouldn't recommend this. Chris Bowen’s, A Bloody Book would probably be more enjoyed by people who like comedy or slight suspense.
******
A Bloody Book
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen
