Official Review: Little Boy Lost by Clive Webb

Ripley3131 · Post by **Ripley3131** » 18 Dec 2016, 20:18

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Little Boy Lost" by Clive Webb.]

1 out of 4 stars

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Little Boy Lost is the heartfelt, true story of a man that has experienced many tragedies and triumphs throughout his lifetime. Clive Webb begins his book with an introduction that sets the tone for the remainder of the book. In short, his primary purpose for writing the book was to gain personal insight.

The author is not shy to admit that he has been diagnosed with a bipolar mood disorder. He recognizes that he's been living with the effects, and affects of this disorder for, as he puts it, "most, if not all, of my life".

Clive Webb begins with a few of his earliest memories. The book travels quickly as he recounts his recollections of the most impressionable events that transpired up until he reached fifty years of age.

Clive Webb was born in 1965, and was only recently diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder in 2015, a diagnosis that, by his own admission, explains a lot of his unusual life experiences, family problems, and many of the difficulties that he has encountered. He uses the reference, "I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way," to describe his life.

As the author is from Britain, there are many references and terms that are very typically British. For instance, in America the storage space in a car is referred to as "the trunk", in Britain it is "the boot". There are also dialect differences in sentence structure that crop up now and then.

There were many aspects of this book that I liked. Clive Webb has a very forthright way of telling his story, even though this honesty does not always paint him in a favorable way, and I admire that. Also, it takes courage to tell a story like his, and to make it available for the whole world to see. Additionally, as I have a Bachelor's of Science degree in Psychology, I am very familiar with the therapeutic benefits of writing. I enjoyed being present to travel with Clive Webb as he made many significant discoveries about himself. It takes a brave man to look to the past in order to have a better future. Along with the honesty, and soul searching, there was a clear sense of humor that shined through his work. The book had many photos included that helped with the sense of realism.

That being said, there were other aspects about the book that I found to be considerably less favorable. The book has difficult sentence structure, many grammar problems, keystroke errors, and very poor spelling. Clive Webb, through the course of the book, does confide that he never liked to write, and did not finish twelve years of school. I do not see this as a viable excuse for not having the book properly checked for spelling problems, and typos. I think I could have handled the grammar issues and poor sentence structure better if it had been spell checked and even remotely proofread. I was also disappointed that there was never a proper definition provided for bipolar mood disorder, as that would have been a good inclusion in the introduction.

As an Official Review, I give Little Boy Lost, a 1 out of 4 rating. I simply cannot excuse the misspelled words, and typos combined with the difficult sentence structure, and poor use of grammar. Regardless of education, an author has a responsibility to the reader to provide a certain amount of proofreading for a manuscript before it is published, even if the proofreading is done by someone else.

If you are a reader that enjoys true stories, and can look passed the spelling and grammar issues to see the "soul" of the book, I believe that you'll not only enjoy this book, but will take something valuable away from it.

If you are a reader that enjoys a "smoother", "cleaner" read than skip this book, because you'll only find it to be very frustrating.

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Little Boy Lost
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Kdonegan91 · Post by **Kdonegan91** » 24 Dec 2016, 12:18

Too bad this book contained so many errors because it seemed like a great read. Thank you for an honest and well-written review. Even though I enjoy reading memoirs and real-life books, the errors would be too much for me to look over.

Thimble · Post by **Thimble** » 24 Dec 2016, 12:30

Thanks for the honest review. This sounds like an interesting book, but I think the errors would be too much for me to ignore.

Silvermoon · Post by **Silvermoon** » 30 Dec 2016, 15:49

To write and expose oneself in this form took guts. It sounds like a book with a profound message. It is a shame that it hasn't been edited yet, but luckily that is something that can be easily remedied.