I loved the way this book started, it was highly readable, and it drew me into the story. I've interacted with enough little boys to know that this story was fairly true to life as well. My complaint is the foul language. While I did not expect a young adult (YA) novel to be squeaky clean, cursing is a part of our society, and must therefore show itself in our fiction, I thought the author's use of it was excessive and merely an attempt to prove that his book was more raw/honest because he was more comfortable using cursing. I personally felt it detracted from the overall effect of the story, but perhaps the excessive cursing is merely a reflection of the desire of little boys/young men to prove themselves at whatever cost. However, despite my complaint, I did enjoy the book, though the ending was confusing--it did not seem as if the book was leading to that conclusion. In the end, I loved the readability, about half of the content, and felt the story was well written, if not completely well-developed. Does not align with my personal taste, but I suspect other readers will love it.

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