The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma

by:  Kristopher Jansma
published by:  Viking Adult
publish date:  March 21, 2013

From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma’s irresistible narrator will be inspired and haunted by the success of his greatest friend and rival in writing, the eccentric and brilliantly talented Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Julian’s enchanting friend, Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. After the trio has a disastrous falling out, desperate to tell the truth in his writing and to figure out who he really is, Jansma’s narrator finds himself caught in a never-ending web of lies.

Know how there are books that you're kinda iffy about but you feel like you have to read them?  This was one of those books for me.  I wasn't super keen on reading it, but I felt like I had to because of all the buzz about it.  

It's a cleverly written book.  The narrator is telling the story of writing the book basically.  He's also telling the story of his friendship and bitter rivalry with another writer, Julian aka Jeffery.  The relationship that they had and they way they both acted made me really happy I wasn't a writer.  The narrator is crazy jealous over the life his friend has and Julien is just crazy period and his fame makes is worse.  I don't know if they became writers because of that, or being writers drew it out of them.

In the end, it was an interesting book.  I listened to the audiobook and it was very well done.  It's short, only 250 pages, but it packs a big story in there.  It's definitely for the contemporary literature lovers out there.  Very intriguing debut novel.