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A review by aria34
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
1.0
Hooo boy. Where to start?
For a magic realism book it sure forgot it was magic realism from chapter 4 to the last 75% of the book.
Which would be fine if the character drama was compelling but it really isn’t. Jared is fine but literally every other person is an asshat; the girls are catty stereotypes the likes of which I haven’t seen since the early 00’s, you’ve got a jock character with a mean dad cliché, various other stoner characters that are given names but they only differ in name, a step sister who’s a teen mom who pawns her child off on Jared, an absentee father who steals his money and is addicted to oxy, his abusive psycho mom (who we’re supposed to root for because she’s “”””tough””””) with an abusive psycho boyfriend and an abusive psycho ex-boyfriend who’s somehow worse than the current one for whatever reason. The only character who doesn’t treat Jared like a punching bag abandons him at the end so that his mom can have an I-told-you-so moment.
If the characters are not going to be likeable at the very least make them interesting. But development for characters is practically non-existant. They just suddenly have it shoved in the last three chapters during the falling action. The just spin their wheels doing the same shit: getting high, having sex, getting into fights, repeated ad nauseam, only for the story to decide it want to do something with them in the last 40 pgs.
This book was just plain exhausting.
For a magic realism book it sure forgot it was magic realism from chapter 4 to the last 75% of the book.
Which would be fine if the character drama was compelling but it really isn’t. Jared is fine but literally every other person is an asshat; the girls are catty stereotypes the likes of which I haven’t seen since the early 00’s, you’ve got a jock character with a mean dad cliché, various other stoner characters that are given names but they only differ in name, a step sister who’s a teen mom who pawns her child off on Jared, an absentee father who steals his money and is addicted to oxy, his abusive psycho mom (who we’re supposed to root for because she’s “”””tough””””) with an abusive psycho boyfriend and an abusive psycho ex-boyfriend who’s somehow worse than the current one for whatever reason. The only character who doesn’t treat Jared like a punching bag abandons him at the end so that his mom can have an I-told-you-so moment.
If the characters are not going to be likeable at the very least make them interesting. But development for characters is practically non-existant. They just suddenly have it shoved in the last three chapters during the falling action. The just spin their wheels doing the same shit: getting high, having sex, getting into fights, repeated ad nauseam, only for the story to decide it want to do something with them in the last 40 pgs.
This book was just plain exhausting.