1 out of 4 stars
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I have never seen a worse edited book than Big Brother by Fabian Robinson. The first thing I noticed upon receiving and opening the paperback was that there was no title or copyright page. The book just starts on the first page. This information isn’t in the back of the book either. The book just ends on the last page. There aren’t page numbers, pages are different lengths and centered vertically, chapters don’t always start on a new page, and only some paragraphs are indented. I found sixteen mistakes on page one, not counting duplicates. Words are capitalized arbitrarily and inconsistently. Words are inconsistently misspelled and mixed up. There is no distinction between words like “too” and “to,” “thought” and “taught,” or “were,” “we’re,” “where,” and “wear.” It switches from past to present tense at will. There is a problem with at least one word in every sentence making it hard to enjoy any of this book.
This book is centralized around the Willis family. For most of the book, the family consists of Kim (the mother), David (the older brother), R.J. (the high school aged brother), Ashley (the middle school aged sister), and Mya (the elementary school aged sister). Later we’re introduced to two other older brothers who are both in jail, an older sister who is a porn star and escort, and a father of at least David and R.J. We aren’t told if he is the father of any of the other kids or if there are any other fathers around. Almost everything takes place in their hometown of Billsview, Texas. Football is everyone’s main priority in this town. David puts a big emphasis on education for his siblings but the family is still very much affected by R.J.’s professional football prospects.
Throughout the book we follow different people’s perspectives. We follow David and R.J. a lot but we also follow others. One chapter in the book is dedicated to David’s friend, Bill, and another to David’s friend, Tyesha. I think these chapters were added to show what could have happened to the Willis family if it were not for David’s vigilance. Bill is a drug dealer that ends up going to jail and Tyesha is an escort. David makes sure R.J., Ashley, and Mya work hard at school so that they don’t end up making the poor decisions these other characters did. These chapters are made unnecessary when we’re introduced to the older siblings who have suffered nearly identical fates.
The mother, Kim, plays a very small role in the children’s lives. She likes to go out all night and meet different men leaving the children by themselves. David has grown into the role of responsible parent long before the book has started. Eventually he realizes he needs to live his own life. He moves out and gets married but still feels a strong sense of responsibility for his younger siblings. The book emphasises how important it was for him to leave but also how detrimental it was on the family. We’re told that Kim is forty-five and that David is thirty-one, making her fourteen when she had him. Much later in the book we’re told that David is almost thirty-one. Then, we meet Joey (thirty-six), Larmar (thirty-five), and Danisha (thirty-three) as the older siblings. We’re to believe they all share the same mother but Kim would have been nine when she had her first. These and other inconsistencies added to the frustrations of reading this book.
I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. I would give it a zero if I could. The editing is so awful it ruins anything that might have been appealing about this book. I’m not even sure of some of the people’s names because they’re spelled differently, sometimes even within the same sentence (i.e. Ashely or Ashley). Whenever we meet or speak about a new person, we’re told in parenthesis how this person grew up, who’s in their family, where they live, and what kind of pets they have. Whenever we hear about a sports team, we’re told in parenthesis the teams school colors and mascot. None of this information is necessary. Full pages are filled with this information and it has no relevance on the storyline. You might read this book if you like football. There’s references to the sport in every chapter and even a play-by-play of an entire game. Otherwise, I’d recommend avoiding this book.
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Big brother
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I don't pray to come across such mediocrity of a book. The mini biographies in parenthesis cracked me up. I can sense your irritation from this review, yet you were able to still give constructive criticism. Well done bb587!
