Blog Tour and Giveaway: Youth and Other Fictions by Jonathan Cook

by:  Jonathan Cook
published by:  ebook
publish date:  September 23, 2011

Jonathan Cook's debut novel looks at the horrors of a school shooting and its psychological effects on those involved. Told from two perspectives--one a student's and one a teacher's--the story reveals the inner concerns leading up to the moment when the world falls apart and the anxieties of coping with the broken pieces afterwards.

This is one of those books that I have trouble with.  I liked parts of it, it was interesting, parts of it were shocking, but overall my feelings towards it are just sort of so-so.

The book is divided in two parts.  The first part was interesting, it deals with a school shooting from a student's perspective and it's not the student the reader expects it to be.  My one criticism about this section was that it was hard to follow the characters.  The John/Jack thing was hard enough to follow then there's Jamie.  In the second section it's Jason and Jamie.  There's tons of other names out there that don't start with J. 

The second section follows a former student involved in the shooting that is now a teacher at the same school.  I didn't particularly enjoy this section.  I found all the school board meetings to be incredibly boring.  They're boring in real life, why would anybody want to read about them for entertainment?  I didn't really understand the antagonist in this section, what his motivation was, why he seemed to be targeting this particular teacher. 

I'm very interested in seeing what other people think about this book, so check it out and tell me what you think.  I can give one lucky person the opportunity.  We're giving away ONE copy of Youth and Other Fictions.  This is an ebook so it's open INTERNATIONALLY.  Please leave a comment with a valid email address below.  If you would like an additional entry please spread the word (twitter, google+, facebook, blog) about this giveaway and provide the link in a separate comment.