carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life

I received a copy of this book from William Morrow and Goodreads First Reads for the purpose of providing an honest review.

This coming of age story was a solid 4 star read for me. It was a relatively short book that could easily be read in a single evening. There is really of lot of story packed into those few pages. This book has recently been made into a movie and I always like to read the book first before seeing the movie, although I rarely follow through with actually watching the movie.

The story is told from the perspective of 13 year old Henry. Henry lives with his divorced mother, Adele. They lead a rather lonely life. Adele does not really like to leave the house and often sends Henry inside to complete errands while she waits in the car. On a rare shopping trip to buy needed school clothes for Henry, they meet a man who asks them to take him home with them. Adele agrees and the bleeding stranger comes home with them. They soon learn that the stranger, Frank, is an escaped convict. Frank is kind to the pair and a bond is developed. As the book moves forward, we learn the background stories of both Adele and Frank which make their character both more likeable and relate able.

I found the writing of this book to be superb. The characters were very real for me and the voice that it was told in was authentic. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a slightly different coming of age story. I will be looking for more works from this author. I do think that this story could make an excellent film so I am more interested in seeing the movie after reading the book than I was before. Now I need to see if I can get a chance to see this movie.