Shuck by Daniel Allen Cox

Shuck by Daniel Allen Cox
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A quick read, worthwhile enough but more for what it indicates the future may bring for the author.

A typical first book, coming of age tale with a 23 year old protaganist that likes to use drugs and make bad decisions, like we all did at that time, but I was glad I wasn't 23 anymore as I read this.

The novel is at times overly bleak, I would have preferred a more upbeat tone, but there was moments of humour, especially at the beginning, that showed promise of what the author may do in the future with a less downbeat narrator.

I know very little about the author but everything I do know was in this book, indicating he based it heavily on his own life.

The good was the humour (drawing Turtles, shoe store), and the porn/hustling parts were mostly good and the use of description was good, I could clearly visualize most of what took place in the book.

Less good was the lack of a story line, the lack of definition in characters other than the narrator, and the not following through with the humurous elements, keeping them mostly in the first half of the book, leaving the second half a slow depressing slide.

As the author ages and gets less in to the "all about me" and "life sucks" phases, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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