Barry Lyga

3.5 stars

This is the 3rd in a trilogy, YA horror. I will try not to give away much from the first two books. 17- (or 18-) year old Jasper (Jazz) Dent is the son of notorious serial killer Billy Dent. Jazz has spent his entire life trying to prove that he is not (nor will not be) like his father (despite his father trying to mold him to continue on in his footsteps!). Jazz was mostly raised by his grandmother. At this point in his life, he has a best friend in hemophiliac Howie, and a girlfriend, Connie. Jazz has, in fact, been trying to help the police find and capture his father. At the start of book three (this one), all three of Jazz, Howie, and Connie, are in precarious positions. I’ll leave my summary there.

I listened to the audio (as I believe I did for the first two books). I had a harder time “getting into” this one and had to rewind a few times to hear things I’d missed. I would have liked to have more of a recap of what had happened in the previous books; I guess a bit of one came a bit further into the book, but at the start of the book, things were moving quickly, but I couldn’t remember much of what had happened up to this point. There were a couple of twists in this one. I’m pretty sure I rated the first two higher (though, on average, this one is also highly rated by others).… (plus d'informations)

This book gets my highest rating because it is one of those rare ones that, as I approach the end, I am sad because I will regret parting company with the characters. In some ways, there are no unique tropes in this book; it is similar to many high school-angst stories. But Lyga's characters are so well-fleshed, and the comic geek theme so close to my own SF geek real life, that the story practically sang its reality to me.
[Audiobook note: The narrator absolutely nails the tone. Were I reading the book, the characters' voices in my head would have used exactly the same intonations and patterns.]… (plus d'informations)