Book Review: Labor Day

My book reviews are my personal opinion. I am not paid for reviews. I read and write reviews for fun. Some books are given to me, some are won in giveaways and some are purchased. All reviews are my full honest opinion and it is not in any way for or against a specific author. Thank you!

Labor Day

by 

Joyce Maynard

2.5 STARS

** spoiler alert ** SPOILER!!!! I didn't really like this book much. Other than the lack of quotation marks the writing wasn't too bad. ...the dialogue without quotation marks made reading the first part of the book difficult but I eventually got past it. I think using a pubecient teenage boy as the narrator was a gross and creepy choice. The "love story" included sex, of course, which had to be conveyed by the narrator...dusturbing at the very least. However I do think the young boy was a superb choice only when it came to his mother's pathetic life. ("pathetic" being used in a non-malicious way-she truly was a sad sad person) I wasn't really feeling the "love" between Frank and Adele. He just spent the last almost 20 years in prison-why wouldn't he jump in the sack with the next available woman... Her side was even more unbelievable. She leads a sorry life putting so much worry, responsibility and pain on her son's shoulders yet some convict rolls into town and she's a changed woman! ...and even worse, her son goes along with all her shenanigans because he will still do anything to make her happy. No one in their right mind would make the mistake Adele did (at least I hope not). If she were so quick to "fall in love" with this supposedly dangerous criminal why wouldn't she just use that effort to get out of the house, find a real job, support her son emotionally and otherwise and work on herself. Afterall you can't love another until you love yourself...which makes this all the more unbelievable. I was really looking forward to this one, but was sadly disappointed. I will give her kudos for the idea. It's not your typical sunshine and butterflies love story.