Acceleration by Graham McNamee
My rating: 3/5 cats
okay, we are going to get quick and dirty on these teen books because i am reading them more quickly than i can review them and the blank spaces next to them in my book list is likely to drive me maaaaad…
“so—just don’t review them,” you say.
and i wish i could be that guy.
but my untreated and probably inaccurately self-diagnosed ocd forbids this. everything must be tidy, everything must be remarked-upon, everything in its place now.
is a fine book. it takes place in toronto—one point for canadian setting. it has a great premise—one point for that. it takes place in some criminal-filled housing project (which i didn’t think even existed in canada) and i just saw harry brown and it makes me happy to picture this place all badass like that, with a teenage version of michael caine skulking around—two points. two points because the killer in this book reminds me sooo much of someone here on goodreads.com, but you would have to torture me to get me to name names. but i will probably tell greg, because he gets best friend privileges. two points for the author’s awesomely batshit q&a after the novel’s end:
Q: How much rewriting and revising do you do?
A: Endless rewrites. Sometimes the first draft is total garbage. I shred the pages, then burn them to ashes and bury them deep in the forest where nobody will ever find them.
points will be revoked if i later find out that this is figurative.
that’s what, eight points??
yes. this book is exactly eight points.
as a personal aside—i was interested in the premise of this book mostly because the idea of finding a killer’s journal and reading it and getting creeped out by it reminds me of more tales from the flagship store when—years ago and for nearly a year, we would find these black unlined hardcover notebooks shelved in the romance aisle and they were filled with the romantic frustrations and sexual fantasies (and also boring quotidian experiences) of this guy who was placing them there in the hopes that women would find them and fall in love with him and find him irresistible and i guess wait there for his next installation? that part i never understood, because they were never on a schedule, but they were always in the same spot on the shelves—what you think a lady is going to spend all day every day just waiting for one to turn up???
note: if you are going to do this, it is wayyy more likely a bookstore employee will find them and will show someone else who works there, and a cult of anticipation will form around “when will he leave the next one??” and “what does he look like?”
we know what he looks like.
and he still comes in, but sadly, the notebooks have stopped.
and i miss them.
let’s give the book another 10 points for reminding me of “shadowjack”.
we miss your words…
read my book reviews on goodreads
