Wow, this book was so much more than I expected. I snatched it up from a free to review list because it was the best sounding of the lot, but honestly I wasn’t completely excited. But then?

I read it in three days.

I took a short day at work so I could come home and finish it before my plans that night. Yup, that happened.

As another reviewer said, this is written very simply. There is no flowing prose, no ‘snow falling like gentle kisses’ or anything like that. There is some telling instead of showing and you know what? That’s all fine with me because I felt more for these characters than I felt during my recent read of Boy meets Boy by a much bigger author.

This story felt very real. The simple style made it feel more real because it was like a few dudes telling you their story. They aren’t trying to come out in a perfect world and they are met by people who accept it, people who hate it, and people who need some time to come around to the idea. A very real portrayal of coming out, at least in my experience.

Simply written as the descriptions may be, the characters themselves are wonderful. I quickly was drawn into Adam’s struggles, I championed his champion, Angel, and even the characters with smaller parts came through as completely three dimensional.

Overall an easy read that will make your heart soar for young love and all the trials that come along with it.

I must have picked this up as a free read sometime on Amazon, because it isn’t my usual style, but I really enjoyed it. I love Criminal Minds, but never really get into crime novels. I think I liked this so much because being in the mind of a killer fascinates me. Trust did a good job taking you into the mind of the killer here. I’m fairly certain Trust must be from Georgia, but if he doesn’t have a background in police work, then good for him for doing the research that made all of the cop stuff in this seem very real.

It was written quite well, the characters all felt very filled out and real. I had no problem imagining Georgia as Trust described. Some of the descriptions were near poetical and I read them a few times just to enjoy them. There are a lot of characters here, risking the chance of them all blending together, but that didn’t happen here. Each character section was easy to tell apart with their own voice and feeling. I’m always impressed by authors who can weave a few different story arcs into one. Here you could easily see where all the arcs were going to come together, but it was still fun to follow them along.

Overall a great, thrilling read. The only reason I’m giving it four stars is because it was longer than I like, but there really wasn’t anything that I felt could be cut out.

A second awesome read from King. It always makes me happy to find that the one book I loved wasn’t a fluke.

As with the first book I read by her (Please Ignore Vera Dietz) Reality Boy is full of flawed characters whose humanity practically bursts off the page. Think John Green, but without most of humor. Both books follow the delicate bonds of families when the people in them are all struggling with their own problems.

Reality Boy follows Gerald, former child reality star. While he was only in a few episodes of Network Nanny, he made an impression. The book flashes back and forth between what happened on those episodes and what is going on in Gerald’s life now. Needless to say, things aren’t exactly peachy for him.

At first, Gerald isn’t a very sympathetic character, he has a lot of rage and social problems, but as the book goes along he begins to work through those things and the reader learns more about what went on in his past to make him the way he is. By the end of the book you are cheering him on.

Great evolution of a character, complicated realistic relationships. Highly recommend!

Sequel to the Marbury Lens and man does it keep the crazy flowing. I was so pumped when I found out that the story wasn’t over, but now I’m sad because I don’t think there is a third book. There really doesn’t need to be a third one except for the one small fact that we STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MARBURY IS!?!?

Ugh, but that’s what makes reading these books so good. You are just as lost as Jack. Situations are life and death and Andrew Smith has no problem killing off his characters so you have to be ready for anything. Reading both of these books is quite a rush. I almost wish I had read them back to back but it was nice to get a breather in between.

Most of the bad reviews revolve around the intense violence and gore of the book, but that’s what makes it feel real. I felt every punch in the gut and wrinkled my nose at every smell in the air because Smith writes in a way that brings it to life. Especially in the audio book. This is one of the few audio books that makes you feel strange while you listen and go about your normal business. I felt like I was half in another world that the people around me had no idea about. Which made me even more into Jack and his story.

Okay, I’m just rambling now,perhaps even gushing. Overall just a great great great book and I loved it and this is going on the short list of books I will read again.