They say the Chinese have a curse - May you live in interesting times. A 15 year old boy has a major change of lifestyle forced on him. We follow along while he adjusts to the changes. However, he lives in interesting times and he must deal with them as well as rising to the challengers presented to him. Through all this his true nature shows and he changes the lives of many others in the city of Rivers, and elsewhere. Set in Australia.
Size: 512 KB (102,421 words)
Genre: Young Adult
Sex Contents: No Sex
Tags: Teenagers, Romantic, Fiction, Crime, Violent, Workplace, Politics
Review by manddscott [other reviews by manddscott]
Reviewed:
A young man is caught up in life and events when his parents are killed by a man on the run from police. In the same event, he is left hospitalized with 2 broken legs and a broken arm. This tale tells the story of his actions thereafter.
For plot, I give the story a B(7). There are too many questions left unanswered. How does a 10 year old (as they describe a past event) have the training necessary to take down a grown man? Why was a 15-year old running numerous companies as the CEO for over a year already? Those are only a couple of the numerous questions that I had after reading the story. At the end of the story, I felt like we had taken 12 chapters to get through just a few weeks, but then took only a couple of paragraphs to cover months, almost as if the author was rushed to finish it.
For technical score, I give it an A (8). Although the story is told in Australian English, there is enough difference between that and American English that it is difficult to tell if something really is misspelled or not, so I give the author the benefit of the doubt. Having said that, this story is written in present tense. Although the choice gives the story some immediacy, I felt it curtailed some options for the writer. This story, simply put, would have been better served in a traditional past-tense telling.
For appeal, I give it an A(8) again. Good premise, lots of promise, but not quite something I would be compelled to read more than once. Please remember, all of these scores are simply my opinion. This was a good read, overall.
