Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Dust by Mark Thompson- Book Review

I had received Dust by Mark Thompson for review from NetGalley* and went into it completely cold. This has to be one of the fastest, slow moving books that I have read in a bit. The strange thing is that it is due to come out in September, but has disappeared from Amazon's release date, isn't on Edelweiss, and isn't listed on Litsy, so something may be up.

This is set in 1960s NJ and centers on the friendship of JJ and El Greco. It begins with JJ and El Greco setting a forest fire which almost kills a bunch of elderly people, but that barely gets resolved.

We also see El Greco almost die from leukemia, but he also seems to get better as he enters into remission.

There is also a car trip which helps change their perspective on life and how they view the world.

I know my summaries usually are a bit fuller, but this is how the book read. At a scant 200 pages, it moves very quickly and there are snapshots of life between the two boys. Things are not too developed and even some of the drama goes away very quickly, which also made for a quick and frustrating read. I wish Thompson had taken some more time with his story telling. I wasn't sure is this was supposed to be a YA book or a book for adults, but I am leaning toward YA as many of the items move too quickly.

I wanted to like this book, but I wish it were a bit longer as a few of the issues JJ deals with are big issues. A story simply around El Greco and JJ as El Greco battles leukemia would have been a deeper story or even the story about the fire they set would have been a deeper story. Instead we got a book that simply brushes some deep issues.

I gave this one 2.5/3.0 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- Dust by Mark Thompson

*I want to thank NetGalley and RedDoor Publishing for allowing me to read an early copy of the book. I received the book for free to review in exchange for an honest review.

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