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A book that has been incredibly well-reviewed, and for this reader, unfortunately, fell more than a little flat.

A sweeping, ambitious story, this tale begins with the friendship between Patch, a thirteen year-old boy with one eye, and Saint, his best friend, complete with single braid and dungarees. The friendship and love between Patch and Saint, and what appears to be on track (no spoilers here) to becoming a lifelong commitment, is a sweet and endearing pillar of the story. A story which will ultimately swell to a six-hundred page quest to end the decades-long reign of a serial killer, working across the United States, in a time-period beginning in the 1970’s.

The story builds, cross-crossing events in time, (in a manner that was often confusing to this reader) as the book is composed of two hundred and sixty-one single or double page “chapters” or little vignettes. In some cases, these flip-focusing scenes rendered it difficult to orient to place or age the protagonists. The plot itself, however, (despite the snappy scene changing) unwinds with a very slow pace, too slow in fact, peppered with geographic references pertaining to site-specific locales in U.S. states no-one could ever possibly follow, and a writing style that favors overwrought sentences that were simply impenetrable to this reader. Character development was also spotty — in some places leading to interesting or charming multi-layered characters (Saint, Norma), and in others (precious young Charlotte, bawdy Sammy) characters that were simply annoying.

As the plot widens, suspense is successfully maintained, for the most part, with the exception of the middle third of the book, which this reader found overly long and difficult to stick with. Along the way, there are some twists and unanticipated character behaviour (much of it feeling largely improbable) and a surprise ending only partially predicted. No-where was there enough simple authenticity for this reader to feel a compelling emotional connection to the story, or really, the majority of the characters.

With an interesting premise, a handful of good characters, and a trail of suspense, there are elements to recommend in this book. As is sometimes the case, however, the final product, for this reader, only cohered into an uneven and often frustrating reading experience.