Official Review: The Lost Years of Billy Battles

Poppy Drear · Post by **Poppy Drear** » 14 Aug 2018, 18:26

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Lost Years of Billy Battles" by Ronald E. Yates.]

2 out of 4 stars

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The Lost Years of Billy Battles by Ronald E. Yates follows William Battles, a journalist, from 1914 to the 1930s as he travels to Mexico while undercover, fighting against forces ranging from Mexican revolutionaries to German forces. This is the third and final book of the Finding Billy Battles trilogy, but since I haven't read the other books in the series, I can only speak to its effectiveness as a standalone novel.

Unfortunately, The Lost Years of Billy Battles tries to pack in so many different elements that, at times, it becomes rather incoherent. Characters are introduced and implied to be important, such as the navigator Ruppert, and then hardly mentioned again after Billy moves on to a different adventure. The book is meant to be a fictional journal that Billy Battles left to his grandson, so I'll grant that this is faithful to how people generally write journals. However, it really didn't make for a compelling narrative; watching characters' relationships develop and change is a crucial part of fiction.

The book's writing style also proved to be distracting. Characters would speak in Spanish or German, only to have someone repeat back to them exactly what they said in English, solely for the benefit of the reader. Furthermore, even with my limited knowledge of Spanish, I was able to detect at least two errors, making it seem likely there were some issues with the German as well. There are other errors scattered throughout the book; while they weren't incredibly obvious, mixing up homonyms or misplacing a quotation mark is still off-putting when it occurs.

Despite these flaws, I can't bring myself to call The Lost Years of Billy Battles a terrible book. At one point, Billy loses someone close to him, and his grief feels realistic and raw. There are other emotional moments that shine through, and though the action scenes focus heavily on describing guns and other weapons, many were quite engaging. I usually had no idea what Billy was feeling, though, and this really hurt how engaged I was with the book. The scenes when Billy described his emotions were some of the most poignant bits of writing I've ever seen, so I certainly can't deny that the book has its moments. They're just so inconsistent that they weren't enough to push it above average, in my opinion.

Ultimately, I rate The Lost Years of Billy Battles 2 out of 4 stars. Neither the plot nor characters were consistently gripping, though there were some excellent moments that shone through. People interested in the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920 are likely to be annoyed at some of the extraneous events, such as Billy's travels to Manila and Chicago. I wouldn't recommend it for fans of historical fiction in general, and there's enough mention of sexual themes that it's for mature audiences only. I can, however, see readers enamored with historical fiction novels that are written in the format of a journal enjoying this book. If that style is something you appreciate, this is probably worth a read.

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The Lost Years of Billy Battles
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Post by **kandscreeley** » 15 Aug 2018, 09:21

If I'm going to read historical fiction, it's got to be very well written and quite entertaining. This doesn't seem to fit the bill. The characters coming and going, the repetition of the foreign languages and the errors aren't compelling me to read this one. Thanks for the review, but I'm going to pass.

AmySmiles · Post by **AmySmiles** » 15 Aug 2018, 10:02

Historical fiction is such a bore for me unless the story line personally interests me and this one just doesn't. Plus all the errors and language barriers would be annoying for me. Thanks for the honest review.

stacie k · Post by **stacie k** » 15 Aug 2018, 16:18

It's too bad that the shining moments were so inconsistent. I'm not sure I would enjoy the journal format. Thanks for your honest evaluation!

Cecilia_L · Post by **Cecilia_L** » 15 Aug 2018, 21:14

With the lack of a gripping plot or characters, I will pass on this one. I do appreciate your honest review.

Julie Green · Post by **Julie Green** » 16 Aug 2018, 01:27

The book title caught my attention as did the opening premise of your review. It's a shame, therefore, that the writing doesn't match up to the expectation. I shall give this one a miss...thanks for your review.

Corhan2 · Post by **Corhan2** » 16 Aug 2018, 08:52

I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, but if there is absolutely nothing else to read I will probably read it. With all the problems you mentioned, I will definitely pass this one. Thank for your review.

crediblereading2 · Post by **crediblereading2** » 16 Aug 2018, 22:15

The book seems quite busy with many fleeting characters and the many adventures of the protagonist. The plot is not too interesting either. Thank you for your very honest review of this book.

Sahani Nimandra · Post by **Sahani Nimandra** » 18 Aug 2018, 05:31

When I saw the title I felt it was a sophisticated read but when I saw the errors I lost all my interest. Thank you for the heads-up information!

Ruba Abu Ali · Post by **Ruba Abu Ali** » 20 Aug 2018, 16:24

The characters and the plot have to be gripping for me to enjoy a historical fiction book. I think I will skip this one. However, I appreciate your candid review. Thanks.

Fu Zaila · Post by **Fu Zaila** » 21 Aug 2018, 06:11

I'm sorry the book was disappointing. It is indeed tedious to read dialogues in a foreign language and have them translated back and forth. Great review Vivi