Reviewed by: Pete Barber
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
Chuck Hunter lives in Northeast Ohio with his two kids. When
he's not writing, he enjoys hiking, fishing, backpacking, and tending to his
Wabash Irises. Pain's Joke is his
first book.
Description:
Jonas Pike, a twelve year old boy born with a facial
disfigurement, struggles to find his place in the world.
Appraisal:
I had
trouble staying engaged with this story. Jonas was a sympathetic character, but
his stereotypical drunken loser of a step-father and his too-forgiving mother
came across as rather two-dimensional to me. The story involves a disgraced
preacher who acts as the catalyst that forces the resolution of the tale, but I
found the ending odd, abrupt, and leaving too many unanswered questions.
Not for me,
I’m sorry to say.
Format/Typo Issues:
This is
listed in YA categories on Amazon, but it does contain a rather graphic rape
scene.
Rating: *** Three stars
No comments:
Post a Comment