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A review by kaje_harper
Bullet Point by Peter Abrahams
3.0
This is a good young-adult mystery/coming of age story. Wyatt's biological dad has been serving a life sentence since before Wyatt was born. When circumstances force Wyatt to move to a new town he suddenly is aware of the prison, and his father, right there within reach. He hooks up with a girl whose father is also in prison. His new girlfriend claims both men are innocent. Wyatt's curiosity and growing desire to understand both himself and the role his mother may have played in the crime, push him to investigate.
The plot of this book is well written, with surprising turns, and a climax that is unexpected and yet works with the characters and story. A few details are questionable. For example, the father, (who was a young, good-looking guy with no ties to any gang or power structure, and no one to send him money from outside when incarcerated), seems to have a lot of power and leeway in the prison. And the best friend Dub just disappears from the story half-way through the book. But in general the story-line works.
What makes this a good book, and not a great one, is that the story after the climax wraps up in an unemotional page and a half. This is where the real emotional work of the story would have happened. Wyatt's relationship with his mother and stepfather, the revelations about his dad and all the questions about how much the man changed in prison (or didn't), the things that happened with Wyatt's girlfriend - all of those would keep a therapist or an introspective narrator busy for months. It feels almost like a cheat to have no insight into how Wyatt feels or handles it all beyond the simple line that "inside he felt like he deserved much worse". So... a good light-weight mystery/thriller story, but not one of the YA that let you get deep inside the main character and reread for the emotional punch.
The plot of this book is well written, with surprising turns, and a climax that is unexpected and yet works with the characters and story. A few details are questionable. For example, the father, (who was a young, good-looking guy with no ties to any gang or power structure, and no one to send him money from outside when incarcerated), seems to have a lot of power and leeway in the prison. And the best friend Dub just disappears from the story half-way through the book. But in general the story-line works.
What makes this a good book, and not a great one, is that the story after the climax wraps up in an unemotional page and a half. This is where the real emotional work of the story would have happened. Wyatt's relationship with his mother and stepfather, the revelations about his dad and all the questions about how much the man changed in prison (or didn't), the things that happened with Wyatt's girlfriend - all of those would keep a therapist or an introspective narrator busy for months. It feels almost like a cheat to have no insight into how Wyatt feels or handles it all beyond the simple line that "inside he felt like he deserved much worse". So... a good light-weight mystery/thriller story, but not one of the YA that let you get deep inside the main character and reread for the emotional punch.