I'll make this short and sweet. Not worth the time it took to read it. Very disappointing. One reviewer wrote " does no one edit anymore"?? that is my feeling as well. Its long and cumbersome and has no interesting characters and (for example) I found myself skipping the 60+ pages of a thesis that a character wrote as totally irrelevant and annoying! It could have been a much better book and I did like the Columbine parts since its still, unfortunately, relevant today. He did a good job with that. Even the ending was ridiculous---really??? I don't want to give it away so I wont say what it was but I actually just shook my head. My most ambitious audio book to date. It was a long one.Positives: The details of Caelum's day-to-day interactions and flashbacks to his messed up genealogical history were good because they were inter-weaved nicely and made us understand him. Understanding Caelum's behavior and forgiving him for it even though he was not necessarily a good person.Negatives: Seemingly unnecessary twists, peripheral characters being major players and then fading to the background, the ending -- everything, after 20+ hours of listening, was summed up and tied up in the last 45 minutes of the audio book. A lot of the story should have/could have been cut out and the story would have still be the same.
Not an easy subject (Columbine) but the story has many interesting twists and turns. A great read.
—nicecom
A descent read but honestly it got so that I was just wanting the story to end already.
—fergusoni
I'm a huge fan of Lamb's work. This may be my favorite of his amazing novels.
—zhy
Amazing writer and storyteller. Each book just as good as the last.
—etana972
Wally Lamb never fails to disappoint. And depress!
—Kat
