Today’s book review: Kids These Days by Drew Perry
Synopsis: From GoodReads
Walter and Alice are expecting their first baby, but their timing is a bit off: Walter, once a successful loan officer, has been unexpectedly downsized. They’ve had to relocate to Florida so that they can live rent-free–in Alice’s deceased aunt’s condo. When Alice’s brother-in-law Mid offers Walter a job, he literally can’t refuse. But what he doesn’t know–about the nature of the job, about the depth of Mid’s shady dealings, about what he’s really supposed to be doing–far outweighs what he does know. And soon enough, things escalate so out of control that Walter is riding shotgun with Mid in a bright yellow Camaro–chased by the police.
Drew Perry paints a landscape of weird and beautiful Florida and its inhabitants–all wholly original and hilarious, and utterly believable. And at the center is a portrait of a father-to-be who is paralyzed by the idea of taking responsibility for another human life when he can’t seem to manage his own. Kids These Days takes perfect aim at the two sides of impending fatherhood–abject terror and unconditional love.
My thoughts:
I found this book as a Nook Book deal in the early fall, and figured it was worth a shot. I went into it with pretty low expectations, and was very pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Was it the best book I’ve ever read? No. But it did have a great storyline, and one that kept me interested and entertained. Each character had their individual quirks and nuances that made it easy to differentiate. Downfall? There were times when I couldn’t keep up with who was talking to who and was saying what. There were times when the book just didn’t flow well. Perry would jump from one scene to the next. But in the end, he tied the whole story, and didn’t leave anything hanging.
The verdict: I wasn’t broken-hearted when this book ended. Sure, it had it’s moments where I thoroughly enjoyed it, but there were just as many moments, if not more, that I just wanted to be done with it and move on to my next read. This is one of those books to purchase when you’re not sure what else to read, or if it drops in price.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
