Review of A Bloody Book
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AlphasFemale
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Review of A Bloody Book
[Following is a volunteer review of "A Bloody Book" by Chris Bowen.]
A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen is not exactly a pleasant book to read. It is full of teen-angst and hard topics. To make it worse, or maybe better depending on your viewpoint the hard topics are not just those that young adults asr facing, but on some base level, there are things that Chris Bowen discusses as Max that almost every reader will be able to relate to or at least recognize in some way. Unfortunately, this might turn some readers away from the book because few actually want to relate to such pain.
Max is in eighth grade although he is not exactly a typical student. Max has quit caring about school at some point and true to form the American public school system has written him off as a failure before even really giving him a chance. He has been put into a remedial reading class where even the teachers don’t seem to try. That is of course until Mr. Foxx replaces their old teacher.
Mr. Foxx is one of those unique teachers who can see the potential in anyone, even those who everyone else has given up on. His goal with this particular class of students appears to be to wake them up and take responsibility for their lives. His main focus point for all these forgotten, pushed aside kids, was to look back on their lives and find out exactly where it all went wrong and own it.
What I liked best about this book was the way it was written. I loved the way it made me feel, not the emotions it triggered in me but the extent to which it made me feel them. It is written in such a way that I could feel Max’s pain, his anger, his overall hatred for a world that doesn’t care about him. Unlike many books in which I just generally like them I actually have a favorite part of this one. It was a realization that came to me on page 160 that shocked me and changed the way I perceived everything that I had previously read. I won’t say any more for fear of giving away spoilers, but what I read on that page will stick with me for quite a while. Strangely enough, what I didn’t like about the book was also the way it was written but a different aspect of it. I understand the need for this writing style, especially since the person writing it supposedly has trouble with reading and writing. The book was extremely choppy with many two-word sentences and very basic language. Again I understand the need for this but that doesn’t mean I like it, however, I won’t take a rating point away for it. I am going to take a rating point away because the book is very slow to start with and that can frequently cause people to put a good book down too early, I almost did.
This book claims to be written for young adults and keeping in mind that young adults are generally between 18 to 35 years old this is probably appropriate. Although I do believe that readers more in the 20 to 35 range and even older would enjoy and appreciate this book better than those in the lower portion of this age range. This is mainly because in my experience people in the younger grouping of this relatively wide age range are still not quite ready to fully take responsibility for themselves and their lives and much like what Max says about the assignment that Mr. Foxx gives them reading this book almost asks readers to do just that. Also the title “A Bloody Book” promises a lot more violence and action than what this book has to offer making something more along the lines of “Reading Hell” a better title (those who read the book will understand). Finally even with everything that I complained about I rate this book 3 out of 4 because while it is not perfect it really is a surprising gem.
******
A Bloody Book
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen is not exactly a pleasant book to read. It is full of teen-angst and hard topics. To make it worse, or maybe better depending on your viewpoint the hard topics are not just those that young adults asr facing, but on some base level, there are things that Chris Bowen discusses as Max that almost every reader will be able to relate to or at least recognize in some way. Unfortunately, this might turn some readers away from the book because few actually want to relate to such pain.
Max is in eighth grade although he is not exactly a typical student. Max has quit caring about school at some point and true to form the American public school system has written him off as a failure before even really giving him a chance. He has been put into a remedial reading class where even the teachers don’t seem to try. That is of course until Mr. Foxx replaces their old teacher.
Mr. Foxx is one of those unique teachers who can see the potential in anyone, even those who everyone else has given up on. His goal with this particular class of students appears to be to wake them up and take responsibility for their lives. His main focus point for all these forgotten, pushed aside kids, was to look back on their lives and find out exactly where it all went wrong and own it.
What I liked best about this book was the way it was written. I loved the way it made me feel, not the emotions it triggered in me but the extent to which it made me feel them. It is written in such a way that I could feel Max’s pain, his anger, his overall hatred for a world that doesn’t care about him. Unlike many books in which I just generally like them I actually have a favorite part of this one. It was a realization that came to me on page 160 that shocked me and changed the way I perceived everything that I had previously read. I won’t say any more for fear of giving away spoilers, but what I read on that page will stick with me for quite a while. Strangely enough, what I didn’t like about the book was also the way it was written but a different aspect of it. I understand the need for this writing style, especially since the person writing it supposedly has trouble with reading and writing. The book was extremely choppy with many two-word sentences and very basic language. Again I understand the need for this but that doesn’t mean I like it, however, I won’t take a rating point away for it. I am going to take a rating point away because the book is very slow to start with and that can frequently cause people to put a good book down too early, I almost did.
This book claims to be written for young adults and keeping in mind that young adults are generally between 18 to 35 years old this is probably appropriate. Although I do believe that readers more in the 20 to 35 range and even older would enjoy and appreciate this book better than those in the lower portion of this age range. This is mainly because in my experience people in the younger grouping of this relatively wide age range are still not quite ready to fully take responsibility for themselves and their lives and much like what Max says about the assignment that Mr. Foxx gives them reading this book almost asks readers to do just that. Also the title “A Bloody Book” promises a lot more violence and action than what this book has to offer making something more along the lines of “Reading Hell” a better title (those who read the book will understand). Finally even with everything that I complained about I rate this book 3 out of 4 because while it is not perfect it really is a surprising gem.
******
A Bloody Book
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko by Matthew Tysz
