Scan barcode
A review by nooralshanti
The Strange Life of Brandon Chambers by Scott Spotson
2.0
The Strange Life of Brandon Chambers is the third book I've read by Scott Spotson. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as I enjoyed the other two.
It starts off strong in the first chapter with a ten year old Brandon seeing a very strange thing - a hare in a gas mask. But then there's a seemingly endless number of chapters that focus on this kid's extremely not-strange life in unnecessary detail that made the book drag. I had to take a two day break in this section because not only did I just not care I also felt extremely annoyed and uncomfortable reading about adolescent Brandon doing drugs, sleeping with a whole bunch of girls when he gets to university, etc. I was going to rate the book 1 star or even 0.5 at this point.
Thankfully around the 60% mark the story actually started getting somewhat interesting again and the actual mysteries with the hare in the gas mask and the issues surrounding his parents' disappearances started presenting themselves to Brandon. I say they presented themselves to him because they did almost literally. Even when he started actually trying to achieve some goals he still didn't achieve much other than what was literally thrown into his lap and suggested by others around him.
The story that finally started to be revealed in the last part of the book, with government conspiracies, strange powers, and a few characters attempting to reveal all of these things actually had a lot of potential. I wish that we could have seen more of this explored in more depth throughout the book. I also wish the author could have given us more character depth as I felt that even though we followed Brandon throughout his growth into adulthood I didn't really get a very good sense of his inner struggles and emotions - it all seemed to be done in a distant or shallow kind of way.
With that being said, if you read the first chapter or two, skip to the 60% mark and read the rest of the story you will probably enjoy it much more than I did. If you want to try this author's work I would recommend starting with either Darren Dattita or My Wizard Buddy which I enjoyed much more than this one.
It starts off strong in the first chapter with a ten year old Brandon seeing a very strange thing - a hare in a gas mask. But then there's a seemingly endless number of chapters that focus on this kid's extremely not-strange life in unnecessary detail that made the book drag. I had to take a two day break in this section because not only did I just not care I also felt extremely annoyed and uncomfortable reading about adolescent Brandon doing drugs, sleeping with a whole bunch of girls when he gets to university, etc. I was going to rate the book 1 star or even 0.5 at this point.
Thankfully around the 60% mark the story actually started getting somewhat interesting again and the actual mysteries with the hare in the gas mask and the issues surrounding his parents' disappearances started presenting themselves to Brandon. I say they presented themselves to him because they did almost literally. Even when he started actually trying to achieve some goals he still didn't achieve much other than what was literally thrown into his lap and suggested by others around him.
The story that finally started to be revealed in the last part of the book, with government conspiracies, strange powers, and a few characters attempting to reveal all of these things actually had a lot of potential. I wish that we could have seen more of this explored in more depth throughout the book. I also wish the author could have given us more character depth as I felt that even though we followed Brandon throughout his growth into adulthood I didn't really get a very good sense of his inner struggles and emotions - it all seemed to be done in a distant or shallow kind of way.
With that being said, if you read the first chapter or two, skip to the 60% mark and read the rest of the story you will probably enjoy it much more than I did. If you want to try this author's work I would recommend starting with either Darren Dattita or My Wizard Buddy which I enjoyed much more than this one.