A review by corncobwebs
Devil's Race by Avi

Felt like a first draft, not a polished manuscript. I liked the concept - joining two polar opposites into a complete whole - but I don't think it was executed particularly well. I had a lot of questions about the ghost version of John Proud that weren't ever addressed. I was particularly disturbed by the notion that, in order to be whole, current-day John Proud had to accept (lovingly embrace, even) his wife-murdering counterpart. And, just on a logical level, how were the two characters aspects of the same person? I'm willing to suspend disbelief if there's a logical framework to believe in. But what tied the two John Prouds together other than their familial relationship and their name? Everyone has family members - either in the near or distant past - who've done horrible things. That doesn't mean that we're forever beholden to or influenced by what they've done. Especially in this scenario, where the ghost John Proud was a 5x great uncle or something.

But! The thing I thought was really cool about this book - as an aspiring writer myself - is that fact that it wasn't amazing, but then Avi went on to win the Newbery medal in 2003 (plus 2 honors in the 90s). It shows that if you have the drive to write and you keep working at it, you'll improve. Not to trivialize Avi's innate talent, but I think talent is only a small part of good writing. The rest is hard work and dedication.