Marjorie's World of Books

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. What a literary delight Owen Thomas has given us! Why this book isn't on every popular must-read list out there I don't know. Possibly the length of the book intimidates people, which it shouldn't. I was amazed at how fast this book flew by. Excellent writing with wonderful character development. I "knew" these people as though they really lived in my world, which they did every time I picked up this book. I knew them and cared about them. Thomas keeps this book moving by having each of the four characters telling their distinct stories so by the time you read a chapter of one character's episodes, you're more than willing to jump into the next chapter to find out what's happening to another character. There's even the story of the movie "The Lion Tree" that's being made within the book that's totally captivating.

Deep, humorous, compelling, suspenseful book from a very talented author.

I've only given the second half of the book 4 stars instead of the 5 stars given to the first half only because there were a few chapters toward the end where I did get a bit bogged down. While the explanations by characters of what had happened "off story" were very necessary, I felt they could have been much less wordy. 4.5 stars would be more like it because of the excellence of the book as a whole.

Instead of putting this one on your to-read list, start reading it TODAY! You'll be glad you did.