Publisher: Spencer Hill
Publishing Date: June 2015
ISBN: 9781939392541
Genre: SciFi/YA
Rating: 3.8/5
Publisher Description: Following his parents’ ugly divorce, Jake Oliver chooses to move with his father to a remote corner of Connecticut. It is bad enough that their new home turns out to be a fenced-in dump in the middle of nowhere, but it seems that the previous owner, his dad’s late Uncle Horace, had been the local crackpot ridiculed by the community for his belief that a Bigfoot roamed the vast woodland preserve that lay beyond the property.
Review: I went into this thinking…”New author, YA, mythical creature……meh”. What I got was a talented writer a good story line and well developed characters. There was no insta-love, reluctant hero and clichéd characters that you find in most YA novels today.
Jake was developed as a normal guy that is interested in girls, is ok looking (not sparkly) and wants to get proof of Sasquatch existing after a brief encounter. Nell is interested in Jake and vice versa until she knees him in the crotch during a mutual kissing affair. So not your typical YA rendition. Jake has familial problems as do most of the characters which creates a little tension. The adults are rendered mostly as either dependent, stupid, greedy, eccentric and egocentric. Which jibes with a lot of teens myopic perspectives on adults.
So why you no give 5 stars? There was some padding here and there with back stories and some seemingly repetitive scenes. Jakes 14 year old sister is “really smart” yet behaves like an idiot most of the time. She is either getting drunk, dating the wrong “older” guy or learning Yeti sign language in a week and helping out at the library. She is at once extremely self-centered and then crying over making a mess of things for the people she loves. Buying it? Yeah, a little. I seem to recall being conflicted at that age but not insufferable.
Despite my shjtpicking a good novel. Get it.
Viking Jam 