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A review by destdest
The Second Chance of Darius Logan by David F. Walker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 53%.
dnf @ page 205
I think the writing style hurt this book. There is TOO much telling and not enough showing; everything will be spelled out and you cannot make any conclusions yourself. The writing felt sterile and lacked emotion for me. There also felt like a noticeable lack of character description.
To be honest, this would work better as a Middle-Grade novel. At times, Darius feels younger than he is, though the narrative deals with the harshness of poverty, drugs, rehabilitation programs for former prisoners, and stereotypes. Also, the way everyone talked about Darius’ dead parents irked me. They talked about him being an orphan like they were sprinkling cheese on a potato, with no sensitivity.
But I thought the initial premise was fun before it meandered. A boy gets a second chance in a superhero world by working in a second chance program. Gave flavors of Static Shock (cartoon) with the metahumans living amongst humans, and a main character with a good heart trying to avoid street life. But there doesn't feel like a major goal the story was working toward even by the 200-page mark. This is slice-of-lifeish with what Darius encounters in his day-to-day job, which works better in a TV medium (animated or live-action) but for a book was utterly dull.
I generally love superhero stories especially when they play with morality, but I couldn’t get into the writing style, so I had a poor reading experience. Now, I don't know if she got more fleshed out past the part I read. But the female love interest felt very underused. To be fair, Darius was too nervous to ever talk to her in more than two words for the majority of the book yet she liked him. Ultimately, this book wasn't for me, but I appreciated the bite-sized chapters.
I think the writing style hurt this book. There is TOO much telling and not enough showing; everything will be spelled out and you cannot make any conclusions yourself. The writing felt sterile and lacked emotion for me. There also felt like a noticeable lack of character description.
To be honest, this would work better as a Middle-Grade novel. At times, Darius feels younger than he is, though the narrative deals with the harshness of poverty, drugs, rehabilitation programs for former prisoners, and stereotypes. Also, the way everyone talked about Darius’ dead parents irked me. They talked about him being an orphan like they were sprinkling cheese on a potato, with no sensitivity.
But I thought the initial premise was fun before it meandered. A boy gets a second chance in a superhero world by working in a second chance program. Gave flavors of Static Shock (cartoon) with the metahumans living amongst humans, and a main character with a good heart trying to avoid street life. But there doesn't feel like a major goal the story was working toward even by the 200-page mark. This is slice-of-lifeish with what Darius encounters in his day-to-day job, which works better in a TV medium (animated or live-action) but for a book was utterly dull.
I generally love superhero stories especially when they play with morality, but I couldn’t get into the writing style, so I had a poor reading experience. Now, I don't know if she got more fleshed out past the part I read. But the female love interest felt very underused. To be fair, Darius was too nervous to ever talk to her in more than two words for the majority of the book yet she liked him. Ultimately, this book wasn't for me, but I appreciated the bite-sized chapters.