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dcsharksreadscrime 's review for:
The Boy from the Woods
by Harlan Coben
The Boy from the Woods introduces us to Wilde, an apparent feral child who was found abandoned in the woods with no memory of his past, yet able to speak, read, and write, and break into houses to steal food and supplies. Now an adult and former soldier, Wilde is asked by elderly lawyer and TV personality Hester Crimstein to use his "special skills" to help track down a missing girl.
The plot is a little all over the place, the characters all have intertwined pasts where everyone seems to know everyone else, and those pasts in some cases are coming back to bite them on the ass.
The novel is split into three parts, the first part introduces the main cast and ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, which was great. However, the cliff hanger is then not redressed until the end of the much longer part two. This may have been a ploy to keep the reader engaged, but personally it just distracted me, causing me to wonder when they were going to get to the bit I already knew was coming, and then when it did come it had no shock value as it was expected. The twists in this book were somewhat underwhelming, not wholly predictable, but not a surprise when revealed.
There is also something a little try hard about the dialogue and narration, Coben wants to portray the characters as pithy and witty, but the attempt at wit often comes across as forced, making the dialogue feel stilted and unnatural.
My favourite aspect of this novel was the shady mirror Arlidge holds up to the modern state of American Politics. Through Rusty's character Arlidge lands a scathing attack on populist politics and one former TV personality turned politically devisive sociopath in particular.
All that being said I still plan on checking out the sequel.
The plot is a little all over the place, the characters all have intertwined pasts where everyone seems to know everyone else, and those pasts in some cases are coming back to bite them on the ass.
The novel is split into three parts, the first part introduces the main cast and ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, which was great. However, the cliff hanger is then not redressed until the end of the much longer part two. This may have been a ploy to keep the reader engaged, but personally it just distracted me, causing me to wonder when they were going to get to the bit I already knew was coming, and then when it did come it had no shock value as it was expected. The twists in this book were somewhat underwhelming, not wholly predictable, but not a surprise when revealed.
There is also something a little try hard about the dialogue and narration, Coben wants to portray the characters as pithy and witty, but the attempt at wit often comes across as forced, making the dialogue feel stilted and unnatural.
My favourite aspect of this novel was the shady mirror Arlidge holds up to the modern state of American Politics. Through Rusty's character Arlidge lands a scathing attack on populist politics and one former TV personality turned politically devisive sociopath in particular.
All that being said I still plan on checking out the sequel.