Review 93: Ohio

Ohio by Stephen Markley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was not an enjoyable read. I thought it was a bit of a mystery, but that part didn't show up until very late into the book. I mean very late. So do not go in thinking this is a typical mystery. The book is very dark and gritty.

Too much of this book was looking back at high school, with the jocks and the popular girls, yet not in your typical teen-bopper sort of way, but bleak, tends towards sadistic way. And the book got even darker as the secrets are revealed. Is this how people in small towns live now? At least the youth in these days post great recession? I didn't know what was going down this road, where the book was leading, and just wanted it to end and quickly powered through.

There was a moment, an aspect that was curious, the layers in the book. The way the stories were layered. We have four different points-of-view with the current day to flashbacks. I appreciated the different sections, adding to each layer their own part of the overall story.

Overall the book felt like something that appeals more towards guys. Of course, all books for all people, but it felt like it was written by a guy that other males would enjoy more than women.

I don't like giving low ratings on books as there is such time and efforts by the authors going into these works they give to readers. Yet this is not to the three star level for myself. Not all books are wonderful, and these lesser books raise up others that are more enjoyable. And of course, each to their own.