Things Boys Do

I think the best way to describe the reading experience here is: what the fuck is going on? That's the emotion which filled me from roughly the first scene transition all the way until the final stretch. And were it not for how good that final stretch proved to be, I'd have probably one-starred this one and moved along.

The journey to reach the good part is arduous and frustrating, hindered often by the refusal to give each of the three men in this story their own names. They're just “the first man,” “the second man,” and “the third man” - which gets annoying before the third man is even reached because there's no name to identify him with. There's no easy way to keep him separate from the others. Frankly, I'm still not 100% certain which of them lost their wife, which one adopted a child, and which one ended up abandoned because the numbering scheme just kind of flickered away into nothingness - an absence of personality, of identification, or meaning. The first man this, the second man that, the third man the other...

But once the spooky element kicks in, and it becomes more evident that this story is teetering on the fine line between paranormal horror and psychological horror, it gets good. And the reveal... Oh, that was actually a little bit chilling. Not great, but good, and enough to turn this around from a one-star to a perfectly respectable three-star read (okay, technically 2.5 rounded up) in my eyes.

If you think you can handle the confusing beginning and slow build to something interesting - or if you just want to give this one a shot for yourself to see what you think - it's available for free here in written form or as one of the free audibooks by nightfire here. I didn't listen along to this one, only read it, so I can't say anything of the audio version's quality.