Complexities – DaneCobain.com

Title: Small Steps

Author: Louis Sachar

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 266

Rating 5/5

This is essentially the sequel to Holes, except instead of following Stanley Yelnats, it follows Armpit. He’s been keeping busy (digging holes of all things) and squirreling away some money, but then his friend X-Ray comes up with an idea about how to make a little money: ticket touting.

Of course, the plan backfires in several fairly spectacular ways, and it also has unexpected consequences for Armpit. At the same time, it’s a coming-of-age story that deals with everything from racism to pushy parents and attempted murder. So there are a lot of complexities here, and while it is I guess somewhere between middle grade and young adult novel, it’s a genuine joy to read.

If you’re looking for “literature” then you might not find it here, but if you just want a good story with a decent message behind it, you need look no further. It was also super sad in places while simultaneously making me feel warm and fuzzy inside. In that respect, it reminds me of both Holes and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

So would I recommend this? Of course I would, but I’d also recommend picking up Holes first. Both of them are fantastic and Sachar is a fantastic writer, and even before I’d picked this up I knew I wanted to add all of his books to my wish list. Then I picked this up from a charity shop, so I guess it’s a sign. Awesome!

Click here to buy Small Steps.

Jesse James Freeman – Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five | Review

Title: Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five

Author: Jesse James Freeman

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 390

Rating: 8/10

Jesse James Freeman – Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five

Disclaimer: Whilst I bought this book out of my own money, Jesse is published and represented by Booktrope, the same publisher which is releasing my debut novella, No Rest for the Wicked.

If you’ve read Billy Purgatory: I am the Devil Bird then this is basically that book, but on acid, and I’m pretty sure the first book was stoned to begin with. Oh man, where do I start?

Basically, Billy Purgatory is a skateboard-wielding badass, who by the end of this book is pretty much whatever age you want him to be. In fact, by the time that you’ve ended up with multiple versions of him in the same room, and they’re talking about alternate realities, your brain is pretty much fried. For that sole reason, I had to give this an eight when I gave the first book a nine – it took me longer to get into it, but once I was there, I was hooked.

And because of the complexities of the story line in the second book, I honestly can’t figure out whether it matters if you read the books in order or not – I usually have pretty strong opinions on this, when I read a book that’s part of a series, but for the first time since I launched SocialBookshelves.com, I just can’t figure it out!

Jesse James Freeman

Still, I was super happy to learn Billy’s middle name and to watch his relationship with Anastacia develop. And then there’s the other big positive to reading something that Jesse has written, which is the fact that you get to read something that he’s written. He writes with colloquialisms, but not so many that they get annoying, and his dialogue is razor sharp – I’m not saying that he isn’t good at writing descriptively, but dialogue is definitely his strength.

Overall, if you read and enjoyed the first Billy Purgatory book, then you should definitely think about reading this one too. If you haven’t read the first book, go and read that, see what you think, and follow it up with this one if you get hooked into the series, like I did. Now that’s badass.