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A review by eefera
House of the Red Fish by Graham Salisbury
3.0
3.5/5 stars.
Okay, honestly the reason this got knocked down to 3.5 instead of 4 stars was because of Keet Wilson. Halfway through the book I was ready to chuck it across the room. He is an infuriating antagonist, and not in a good way.
Even though Salisbury gives us a little bit of a "he's a boy with daddy issues and is trying to make his father proud of him", it wasn't nearly enough for me to feel like he was more than a villain who is evil simply because he's supposed to create conflict... every ten pages.
I love Salisbury's writing style and I am obsessed with the little motley crew of boys at the center of the story. Mose and Rico are fabulous and I love Rico's fighting spirit and Mose' good natured ribbing. I love Billy's quiet loyalty. And I love Tomi's struggle between upholding his family's honor by being the bigger man or upholding it by standing up for himself.
I love Grampa Joji's gruff tenacity. I thought Mama was a better developed character in this book as well, and I liked her much better. I also liked the character development of Jake (Billy's brother) now that he is separated from Keet.
But Keet's ridiculous meddling and his ability to summon a slightly unbelievable number of young men to intimidate Tomi's crew got old really, really fast.
Still a great book, but I'm hoping that Keet isn't as infuriating in the next book. I'm guessing he is.
Okay, honestly the reason this got knocked down to 3.5 instead of 4 stars was because of Keet Wilson. Halfway through the book I was ready to chuck it across the room. He is an infuriating antagonist, and not in a good way.
Even though Salisbury gives us a little bit of a "he's a boy with daddy issues and is trying to make his father proud of him", it wasn't nearly enough for me to feel like he was more than a villain who is evil simply because he's supposed to create conflict... every ten pages.
I love Salisbury's writing style and I am obsessed with the little motley crew of boys at the center of the story. Mose and Rico are fabulous and I love Rico's fighting spirit and Mose' good natured ribbing. I love Billy's quiet loyalty. And I love Tomi's struggle between upholding his family's honor by being the bigger man or upholding it by standing up for himself.
I love Grampa Joji's gruff tenacity. I thought Mama was a better developed character in this book as well, and I liked her much better. I also liked the character development of Jake (Billy's brother) now that he is separated from Keet.
But Keet's ridiculous meddling and his ability to summon a slightly unbelievable number of young men to intimidate Tomi's crew got old really, really fast.
Still a great book, but I'm hoping that Keet isn't as infuriating in the next book. I'm guessing he is.