2 out of 4 stars
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Incendiary Creek is a fictitious story written by F.A. Schiavone and published in July of 2017. Written in third person narration, Incendiary Creek speaks the tale of 4 students who take revenge and fighting a bit too far. When a pair of the group are attacked on their walk to a Friday night meeting place, one immediately strikes back without thought, resulting in the missing case of Dudley, another member of their group.
Members of a gang frequently known for fighting another local group of students, the four are faced with the consequences of their actions quickly, as the missing person case quickly comes to a head. Will the boys be able to stick to their story and keep one another out of trouble, or is this just the beginning to their haywire life of crime?
At right around one hundred pages, this seemingly short read took me much longer to get through than I had originally planned. What seems to be a one-day story passed slowly and turned into about a week’s reading. I was disappointed to see that the story seems to pick up right in the middle of action, with no background information on main characters, and ends with a subtle sentence that seems difficult to digest. The story lacked character development, while also delivered characters that did not seem memorable. Disappointingly, I had to keep looking back in the story because I would forget which character was which.
I also struggled with the conversation between characters. Most of the dialogue seemed forced and unnatural, and other sections seemed unrealistic for a group of students who were members of a gang. I find it hard to believe that a group of kids with who spend all their time drinking and fighting could care enough about their education and future to speak with perfect grammar and dialect.
What I did find impressive with the story was the unexpected twist that came along, which changed the story around and peaked my interest a bit more. I liked the involvement of adding in a twist to a crime story that seemed to suffer alone.
It’s rare that I read a story with a surprisingly twisted ending and am not able to recommend it. Unfortunately, Incendiary Creek falls in this category, causing me to give it a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. The main reason for the low rating falls within the issues of character development and dialogue, as I just can’t relate to a story or enjoy the reading if I am too distracted by the conversation between characters. It seems as though the author has the start to a really great story, and with some additional improvements and character reflection, I believe this can become an exciting story that will pull in readers.
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Incendiary Creek
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