Review by Avafisherman -- A Bloody Book by Chris Bowen

[Avafisherman]

[Following is a volunteer review of "A Bloody Book" by Chris Bowen.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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A Bloody Book, by Chris Bowen, begins with a strange preface. It is a short page in which he asks his readers not to stop reading when they find the first page not filled with the 'bloodiness' promised by the title. He asks instead that they “start for the story, care for the characters, and stay for the twist.” At first, I found this inclusion off-putting–is this really going to be worth the read if the author needs to plead for me to stay with it? My answer, surprisingly, turned out to be ‘yes’–and here is why.

A Bloody Book is the story of Maxx, a depressed, disadvantaged, parentless 8th grade burnout, trudging his way through middle school. The book is framed as a long-overdue essay answering the question, “when did you first stop caring?”, written by Maxx years after his teacher assigned it. Like Bowen himself, Maxx assures his reader that there will indeed be blood later in the book, but that there are some important details to get down first. With the promise of drama, conflict, and violence in mind, we are led through flashbacks of Maxx’s turbulent homelife and disappointing school experience, both of which are fraught with crime, drug abuse, and careless adults. At age thirteen, Maxx appears to have given up on his future, as well as on the possibility of receiving love and having a real family. He is sour, removed, and resigned to his fate. However, this is not why we end up caring for him. In the face of his struggles, we quickly come to realize that Maxx is intelligent, selfless, and intuitive–an unlikely and, frankly, unwilling hero.

Bowen clearly has a strong grasp on the mind of a troubled youth. He writes Maxx’s voice with what I’d assume to be the right amount of poignancy, brashness, and surrender for a character at his age and in his situation. More than anything, though, what impressed me the most about this book was that the author appears to have achieved his goal, in that he makes the reader empathize with Maxx. There are plenty of sociological articles one can read about domestic violence and the lives of disadvantaged children, but books like this one are what is needed in order to understand the horrible humanity of these all-too-common sufferings.

Despite its good qualities, A Bloody Book suffers dearly from formatting, grammatical, and organizational issues. The book is difficult to read at many points, as Maxx’s anecdotes are often scattered and hard to follow. One memory will trigger another memory will trigger another, until eventually we become lost in the book’s timeline. When I came to the end of the story, I had forgotten where it began. These never-ending tangents, though they often serve to portray vital points in the story, do more to confuse than elucidate. The other main issue I had was the inconsistency of the narrator’s voice. At some points Maxx thinks in a juvenile drawl, while at others his thoughts seem exceptionally sophisticated, riddled with high-level vocabulary words. This made it difficult to get a good grasp on Maxx’s character, as sometimes it felt as though one narrator had been randomly swapped out for another.

I give A Bloody Book 3 out of 4 stars. Overall it was a good read, with a captivating narrator and solid plotline. I did not give it a full four out of four because of the numerous grammatical errors, as well as the confusing way the story is organized. I see this book as serving educational uses–perhaps to assign to new teachers or middle school students. Because A Bloody Book appears to be a successful experiment in empathy, it should be cleaned up and used to give educators and students much-needed insight to the lives of disadvantaged children.

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A Bloody Book
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[Prisallen]

This sounds like a very poignant story about an unfortunate child's background and why he is where he is at now. I agree it would be a good way to teach empathy to others. Thanks for your well-written and interesting review!

[PeterRabitt20]

The author's pleading is a good fishing-tactic. I'd be caught in this net myself. It is too bad that a reader would get taken away so far from the main point of the story. I hope that gets remedied since the idea of the book is much needed. Thanks for your insightful review.