Reviews

Johnny Hazzard by Eddie de Oliveira

bmore_bookworm36's review against another edition

5.0

It was one of those kinds of books where you felt like it was this forbidden fruit that you couldn't have but you look at it with such hungry curiosity that you can't help yourself once you start to get a taste of it. A unique and ultimately bittersweet love story between a teenage skater boy and a beautiful Londoner who's almost old enough to be his older sister that is truly riveting and provocative.

kricketa's review against another edition

3.0

i adored the first half of this book. johnny hazzard, 15, of texas, is spending the summer in london with his father, stepmother, and older sister. at a skate store, he meets the lovely january and falls in love for the first time. but halfway through the summer, they are parted to go on vacation with their families. this is where the book practically grinds to a halt. johnny goes to belgium and has an epiphany about The Horrors Of War. to be fair, i actually found this really interesting but it felt out of place, like it should have been its own book. and this section was lonnnnnnng. compared to the rest of the summer, johnny hazzard is in belgium for an eternity.

with some heavy editing in belgium, this could have been one of the best teen dude POV romances i've read. as it is, i'm not sure teens will have the patience to wade through.

angelreadsthings's review against another edition

3.0

This book started out greatly. The author writes with a unique yet enjoyable style and easily depicts realistic, entertaining characters; however, for me, the novel had two major downfalls. The first being its overly political nature at times. Throughout the first major part of the book and the ending, the politics are scattered and small, which I felt was bearable; yet, during the Belgium trip, I felt that the political presence was overwhelming. The second being the trip to Belgium in general. Besides the high political level, I had a problem with the length of that section. For such a long section, it moved the plot a long very minimally and only a small portion provided any character development. Fortunately, the ending was just as great as the beginning(though not great enough to completely negate the problems of the Belgian holiday).