Monday, November 30, 2015

Review: House Arrest by K.A. Holt

House Arrest
Read: Nov. 24-30, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 304
Genres: Realistic fiction, poetry, health, family

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Stealing is bad.
Yeah.
I know.
But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive.

I didn’t think anyone would notice,
if I took that credit card,
if, in one stolen second,
I bought Levi’s medicine.

But someone did notice.
Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead.

That one quick second turned into
juvie
a judge
a year of house arrest,
a year of this court-ordered journal,
a year to avoid messing up
and being sent back to juvie
so fast my head will spin.

It’s only 1 year.
Only 52 weeks.
Only 365 days.
Only 8,760 hours.
Only 525,600 minutes.

What could go wrong?
"


So...this was a new type of reading experience for me, because I've never read a book that was written in diary entries. I know there are plenty of books out there like this, but this is the first one I've tried...and to be quite frank, I don't think I'll be eager to try this format again anytime soon.

I LIKED...
The setup. The idea of a twelve year old kid attempting to steal a wallet to buy medication for his little brother is...an interesting idea, and...his consequences and outcomes were at times, amusing to read about...but otherwise, I can't think of anything else that really stood out for me...

I DISLIKED...
The language of the book didn't really sit well with me, it wasn't that it was hard to understand, it was just...unusual. Yes, I know, the diary entries are from a twelve year old boy, so I shouldn't be complaining about the very informal like language, but now I know not to read books narrated by twelve year old boys.

The surprisingly un-relatable characters. I say surprising because I've been in a similar situation, not the medication or the stealing part, but the part about the missing dad.

Well, we all have family issues to varying degrees, so...without revealing too much...my parents argue more than the average pair of parents (I'm assuming), and believe it or not, I actually have a calendar to mark/note down all the days they fight/argue, when my dad leaves, what they fight about, when certain authoritative individuals become involved, and how/why they make the stupid decision to get back together and pretend they didn't just spend the last few days/weeks swearing at each other, and starving themselves of food...did I mention isolating themselves from their worried kids...? Well, that, too.  So...if I look back at the years...I could (maybe) safely assume that my parents spend more time apart than they do together and being a happy, loving family...which is...sad.

Suffice to say, the characters weren't as developed as I'd have liked them to be by the end of the story.

Just FYI...I received this book for free from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in return for a...you guessed it...a review...!

Have you ever read a book narrated by someone younger than you?  How did you take it...?  Any recommendations I'd like?

1 comment:

  1. Electronic home monitoring is used as an alternative by confining an offender to house arrest.

    ReplyDelete

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