4.5 stars

This book begins as a pretty typical mystery-adventure book about a troubled young man with a healthy amount of love-interest women. But it progresses into an insane story of a marxist, anarcho-communist cult conspiracy and an exploration of modern radicalism. Didn't expect that one.

It's really good. Last time I plowed through a book this quickly was, I think 4 months ago? It was about 36 hours. The beginning was a little slow and there were some red flags, especially surrounding the protagonist, but as the plot progressed it drew me in and got more and more interesting. The set up of the plot is predictable but it intentionally throws the reader for a loop over and over again. Some of these loop-throws are more successful than others, but such is the way of writing, and it was done impressively well, especially considering it's a debut novel from the author.

The ideological debates were incredibly well laid out. Exploring ethical gray areas and the frustrating reality of the foggy concept we have for "the establishment", Sam Miller created a complex and fun conflict between characters that are all running from their own collapsing sanity. It became thoroughly intriguing, which helped cover up some logical oversights. The story largely thrives on incredible coincidence, but it seems almost purposeful given the themes of the book.

Miller's representation of mental illness is... okay. There's a lot of it that I liked, such as the fact that the mentally ill character had real depth and nuance, both in relation to his mental illness as well as outside of it. The only part that I really had trouble with is that the author follows the common trend of displaying mental illness as inherently violent, with the protagonist having committed an act of violence largely connected to his psychological state, and another character saying "we're all fucked up", and then becoming a violent antagonist. However, these moments were few and far between.

The author also falls into a few common narrative pit-falls with mental illness. Hallucinations are over-rationalized, by describing it as if the person is physically "there" (i.e., can be both seen and heard and even felt), even though that is almost never the case. It makes sense from a story perspective, and it's also been done by the likes of A Beautiful Mind and Fight Club (more on that in a second), but it's still a little unrealistic. Also, nightmares/hallucinations being used for backstory or exposition seems a little lazy to me, but that might be nit-picking. Speaking of nit-picking, is the protagonist lucid or deluded? Because it seems that his hallucinations are real to him, and he's experiencing them as real conversations, but the book (written from his perspective) acknowledges them as not real. I'm not sure which way it falls, but they were well constructed either way. Overall I vastly prefer this representation of mental illness over most of the ones I've found. Most of the issues with it are just common story decisions made to move a plot along.

This author has to like Fight Club. I could be wrong, but the themes of this book line up very well with Palahniuk's magnum opus, minus some of the pretentiousness and gratuitous violence. The exploration of what structure in society means, the introduction of an anarchist secret society, a reluctant and troubled main character that slowly realizes the evil of previously mentioned anarchist secret society, not to mention the obvious connection of personified hallucinations. It all works out in a similar way, albeit with a much different outcome and context. This was a delightful surprise coming from a YA adventure book.

The character interactions are well done. The exploration of trauma is fantastic. The ending was delightful and made me more satisfied than I expected. Overall this is a very well written story. All of my complaints are out-weighed by the fun of this narrative.

But who am I kidding, I'm giving this rating for one reason only: it's got so much train travel. I love trains. ( )

A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller 3.75/5 Contemporary YA

A Lite Too Bright is a coming of age story with some unique elements. The main character is the grandson of a famous writer who wrote a seminal novel in the seventies, think J.D. Salinger. This is the story of Arthur’s journey to discover what his granddad had done during his last week of life. His grandfather was suffering from severe Alzheimer’s and took off without a word from his house in California and a week later he died in Ohio. Arthur is delightfully unreliable. There are lots of examples of the grandad’s writing, taken from various sources that are discovered on the journey.
The characterizations were good. They carried the story. We learn lots about the main character, the love interest and the grandfather over the course of the novel. There were fleshed out secondary characters to add to the story.

This book has a contemporary setting, with a long trip across western United States. Each stop is interesting, and the train is a great set piece for some events.

Themes in this book are about coming of age, loss of innocence and mental illness. I think the main character has schizo-affective disorder. Both the grandad and the grandson have significant losses in their lives and that play into the central themes.
There were some thorny problems in the book, mainly how the main character could locate places and items of importance seemingly without effort. Coming up are some minor spoilers, so look away! There is a side character that is totally unbelievable. Lots of events are so perfectly timed as to strain the suspension of disbelief. The main character is allowed to cavort around the west, committing crimes, joining with a revolutionary group, and assaulting a police officer. So unbelievable.
I really liked the writing in this book. The epistolary pieces are done well. The resolution is satisfying. It was a good book.
( )

Samuel Miller did a good job of writing a mystery of sorts while demonstrating his ability to skillfully write both poetry and prose. At times, A Lite...did not shine so brightly--it was flat and often dry--though I believe Miller worked hard to meaningfully interweave issues of mental illness, legacies, intergenerational relationships and more. ( )

Admittedly, it's been years since I read Catcher in the Rye. Seeing as this book is marketed as perfect for those who are fans of that book I thought that maybe I would at least like it. But I didn't

This book is about a guy named Arthur Louis Pullman who goes on a cross-country train trip to discover his grandfather's past. Years earlier his grandfather, also named Arthur Louis Pullman, took the same trip only he had dementia and no one knew how he ended up in a hospital several states away where he ultimately died. Arthur (the third) finds people along the way that came into contact with his grandfather and he learns some other things that help him deal with his own problems.

I was so bored with this book. Honestly, I have no idea how I got through it all the way and even the parts that were interesting were not all that engaging. I'm not a fan of road trip stories but I didn't think this would be all that boring. I didn't like Arthur at all, he wasn't unlikeable but he wasn't interesting either.

Maybe I have to go back and read Catcher in the Rye and see if I still like it because I do remember that my English teacher always said that there are two kinds of people: one who likes Catcher and one who hates it. Hopefully I still like it? ( )