Author: Tom Leveen
Published: April 27th 2010
by Random House BFYR
Source: My Bookshelf
Goodreads Blurb
It's saturday night in Santa Barbara and school is done for the year. Everyone is headed to the same party. Or at least it seems that way. The place is packed. The beer is flowing. Simple, right? But for 11 different people the motives are way more complicated. As each character takes a turn and tells his or her story, the eleven individuals intersect, and reconnect, collide, and combine in ways that none of them ever saw coming.
Tom Leveen has 22 years of theatre experience as an actor and director. He was the Artistic Director and a co-founder of two companies: Chyro Arts Venue, an all-ages nonprofit visual and performing venue; and Is What It Is Theatre, a community theatre that operated for 13 seasons. Tom lives with is wife and son in the Phoenix area. PARTY was his first novel, followed by ZERO (a 2013 YALSA Best Book) and MANICPIXIEDREAMGIRL, all with Random House. His fourth novel, SICK, a YA horror, will be released in Fall 2013 from Abrams/Amulet.
This was a quick read for me.
It's the biggest party of the year and we get eleven different points of view of the same night, only not really. Each person shares their version of the night's happenings, but with very little overlaps. We learn each teenager's hopes and fears for the future. As each story unfolds, we see lives that are intertwined and woven together in ways that surprise even the characters. We also realize that each person just wants to be seen, really seen, and accepted for who they truly are.
The stories within the story are so diverse, but also closely knit together. Leveen brings both swoon and heartbreak - triumph and defeat - all in under 300 pages.
I think my favorite part of reading this story is just its general uniqueness. The author is amazing at the art of character development. Even though the book is on the short-ish side, I really feel like I became acquainted with each individual character and got to know them intimately.
I enjoyed this novel by Tom Leveen and look forward to reading more.
4 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment