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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
This book was super good! I love psychological books, and that's exactly what I found here.
It starts with Doug, a "nerd" who is way into trains and as you read on you learn, fascinated with fire. His best friend is Andy, the compete opposite of him. Andy is popular and always busy and it doesn't even make since that he's friends with Doug.
Throughout the book, Doug is seeing a psychiatrist and supposed to be taking medication, though he doesn't. He is also building a replica of the golden gate bridge in his basement to go with the small town his grandfather left him.
As you read on, you realize that something is a little off about Doug.
Then you learn that he is oddly fascinated with fire and has even burned his tree house down.
That's when you read about his hiding in the bushed and spying on the girl he likes. She finally spots him and he encounters the police, but nothing comes of it.
He then gets jumped and that's when everything starts to downfall.
Then you find out that Andy died in a house fire they set were they were 14, 4 years ago. He's been crazy all this time. His parents try to put him into a mental institution. He then goes into the basement, finishes his bridge and then sets the whole thing on fire. It ends in bit of a cliffhanger, but I took it as he went on to be in the mental hospital and he things he's in the little city that he was building. It ends with him talking to Andy.
It starts with Doug, a "nerd" who is way into trains and as you read on you learn, fascinated with fire. His best friend is Andy, the compete opposite of him. Andy is popular and always busy and it doesn't even make since that he's friends with Doug.
Throughout the book, Doug is seeing a psychiatrist and supposed to be taking medication, though he doesn't. He is also building a replica of the golden gate bridge in his basement to go with the small town his grandfather left him.
As you read on, you realize that something is a little off about Doug.
Then you learn that he is oddly fascinated with fire and has even burned his tree house down.
That's when you read about his hiding in the bushed and spying on the girl he likes. She finally spots him and he encounters the police, but nothing comes of it.
He then gets jumped and that's when everything starts to downfall.
Then you find out that Andy died in a house fire they set were they were 14, 4 years ago. He's been crazy all this time. His parents try to put him into a mental institution. He then goes into the basement, finishes his bridge and then sets the whole thing on fire. It ends in bit of a cliffhanger, but I took it as he went on to be in the mental hospital and he things he's in the little city that he was building. It ends with him talking to Andy.
The intriguing plot kept me hooked. Although, I found the protagonist irritatingly bothersome I still thoroughly enjoyed the novel. A quick read (not quite 150 pages), its great for times when you don't need something challenging.
Wooow. I hate how this ends. And Doug is too creepy for me.
Creepy. Really creepy. Also, really well written.
Whoa...disturbing. but it was good. i really like this author. the first one i read of his was "Godless" which i really enjoyed. i have not been let down yet!
This was the first book ever to make me cry. I thought the ending was so sad. I was actually quite surprised to read that people didn't understand or "get" the book. I might spoil it right here. But basically during the first half of the book you learn that there is Doug and Andy but by the end you learn that Andy was never there. Doug was still seeing Andy and imagining him being there. Andy had died in a fire before the start of the book. Who knows if Andy's ghost really did come to Doug or if he was just making him up. I just find it so sad how they both were interested in fire and yet Andy had died in a fire and Doug gets burns all over his face and body from his play trains having exploded at the end of the book. And how as he's laying in the burn victims section at the hospital Andy comes there and he has a conversation with him, which I thought the conversation was sad but I can't remember it. I didn't think it was a hard read to understand, it's like one of those movies where you have to watch it a second time when you learn by the ending that something was never really there.
This was a quick read and mildly interesting. I liked some of the random thoughts of the obviously mentally ill main character, like him wanting to count to 180,000 by 17s, things like that kept the book entertaining and gave it a bit more personality. Outside of that, the story itself was kind of ho hum with a plot twist that was very obvious from the beginning and when revealed, it was done so matter of factly that it was almost as if the author was saying "of course you saw this coming, I meant for you to" (which I actually kind of enjoyed). I also almost liked the way it ended until it went just that one step too far and became almost cartoonish. Grab it from the library for something quick and painless to read.