Prompt: Did you enjoy what you read?
I have confused emotions about this book, I think. Part of this book wasn't so good, but part of it was absolutely amazing. It has a realistic plot, focusing on things that, sadly, happen to real people. I actually really enjoyed it, though. You can tell that a lot of emotion and effort was put into it!
Well first off, the point of view is weird. It might be second person, but it might be first person. Second person is when the person telling the story addresses the reader as "you". And of course, first person is the story being told by the main character's point of view. In this book, I'm kind of confused on what the point of view is. The book uses pronouns you would see in a first person book, but it also uses "you" like a second person. The main character doesn't refer to the reader as "You", though. He refers to the other characters with "you". For example, he might say, "Mr. Steenwilly, you,". He isn't saying it aloud, but he's thinking about them. He even sometimes refers to himself as "you"...What ever the POV is, it made for a pretty interesting read!
The plot of this book was a pretty good one, actually! The first chapter or two are rather boring and the writing feels awkward, but the book gets better and better with each passing chapter. We start off with the usual 'plain/invisible/not-popular boy likes the best girl in school' theme. Following the rules of these books, he gets the girl!!! And it turns out she has a terrible personality. Just seriously mean. That's not a spoiler. I hope. Oops. Anyway, that whole thing doesn't last for very much of the book. The main problem of the book is the main character's home life. His father walked out when he was young, so he and his mother have been surviving on their own. His mother has a boyfriend who stays at their house all day, as he is a stay at home boyfriend. His mother works pretty much all day, leaving him with the boyfriend all day on weekends and for a few hours after school.
Doesn't sound too dramatic or interesting, does it? No. Not to much. John, the main character, is being physically abused by his mother's boyfriend. The boyfriend is a smart man, so he beats John with an open hand or a belt so they won't leave marks like a punch or a kick would. This means no one knows about this. John can't tell his mother because chances are, his mother wouldn't believe him and he would be beaten even more by the boyfriend for trying to rat him out. Whenever there's a sort of event or development with John's social life or friends, he gets beaten by the boyfriend because these new events or developments will mean he gets home later. That's not going to slide.
I'd rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. John's school/friend events in the book may not be that interesting, his home events have so much emotional details and you can just feel how much he hurts and how much he wants to make it all stop but he can't. Near the end of the book, I actually started crying because you spend the whole book really liking John, but near the end, you really think he's going to die. The boyfriend is drunk and beating John more than ever, so the emotion and details the author put into that part sound so realistic you can't help but get a little watery eyed. Especially since John's dog tries to protect John. The boyfriend had been beating the dog as well, so the dog was now terrified of him. Despite that, when he sees that John is being attacked by the thing he fears most, he tries desperately to save him. It's pretty heartbreaking what happens to the dog. :(
Anyway, I definitely recommend this book to someone who has the patience to read through some kind of boring stuff to get to the best parts of the book. It's really worth it!
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