|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 An interesting story of self-discovery Mar 15, 2010
This is a coming of age story where the main character learns the necessity of being honest with himself, while also dealing with different people, all of who have different agendas for him. The plot is complex, with richly developed characters, and an interesting connection to Pinocchio. I highly recommend it as you will be turning pages to find out what happens to the main character and how he discovers himself and his sense of place in the world.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Escaping the Puppet Master Mar 15, 2010
Nick Nolan has written a sensitive and textured coming of age novel that evokes the Pinocchio story at multiple levels. Jeremy, the young protagonist, struggles to free himself from the manipulations and machinations of his great aunt, who is the major Gepetto figure in the story. But there are also other characters who are attempting to pull the strings of Jeremy's life as he struggles to bridge multiple chasms - poverty to instant riches, independence to dependence to interdependence, mistrust to trust, boy to man. As the action in the story becomes more and more dangerous, Jeremy's picture of what it truly means to be a man and to accept himself and his identity comes slowly into focus. It is a tale lovingly told about a young man whose well-being the reader comes to root for. I look forward to reading more from Nolan.
0 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Too Graphic Mar 11, 2010
I found the plot of this book to be very interesting,
Although I do not consider myself prejudiced regarding
the subject, I do not believe the graphic description
of the subject was necessary. I did not enjoy reading
the book because of its content and do not plan to read
another book by this author.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Strings Attached Mar 10, 2010
In Nick Nolan's Strings Attached, Jeremy, a seventeen year-old boy is uprooted from his destitute life when his mother is entered into an extended rehab program for her alcoholism. He ends up living with his affluent great aunt Katherine, her conniving husband and their butler. He begins to blend in with the rich kids at his new high school and even gets a coveted spot on the swim team, following in his father's footsteps. The rest of the story is part coming out/coming of age and part mystery novel.
While I enjoyed this book, I was wondering as I read it who the target audience was. I initially thought was intended for young adults. I was shocked then, to read some of the scenes describing sex and masturbation. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, and I wasn't offended by them (they are honestly not all THAT graphic), but I didn't expect that sort of thing in a YA read. Come to find out at the end in the Author's Notes that it was initially a YA novel turned adult because of those very same passages I was confused by. It seems to me like the book would have been better as a YA novel and more delicate handling of the sexual aspect.
Regardless, I thought this was a fairly good read and a decent first attempt, and will keep an eye out for Nick Nolan's works in the future.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Had Potential, But Missed the Mark Feb 25, 2010
Nick Nolan's STRINGS ATTACHED reads, at first, much like the television show The O.C., with its poor-boy-moves-in-with-rich-benefactors theme that takes place in on the rich Californian coast. Add to that a male protagonist who is struggling with his burgeoning sexual identity, and Nolan had what could've been an interesting social piece. Unfortunately, he didn't leave well-enough alone, and, chose, instead, to fold in a weak mystery that doesn't gain much steam until the final quarter of the book -- and then falls completely flat. Ultimately, the book felt chaotic and sloppy, which was sad since it began with so much promise.
I wasn't crazy about Nolan's fairly two-dimensional characters, although they were likeable enough, in general. The antagonist, however, was cartoonish and formulaic, and had no real heft to him. The dialog was somewhat melodramatic and occasionally out-of-date (at one point, a teenage girl calls her boyfriend "a big, stupid ding-dong"), and there was too much exposition and too little actual action. Nolan forgot the golden rule of writing: show, don't tell. And key elements were often introduced and then dropped, such as a significant incident between male lead Jeremy and his friend/crush, Coby, that went absolutely nowhere.
Still, there were some redeeming qualities to the book. It was an easy read, and if the characters weren't particularly fascinating, neither were they offensive. I think it suffers most because Nolan tried to make it too many things at once: the coming-of-age tale of a gay teen, a murder mystery and strange re-telling of PINOCCHIO. On top of all that were themes of drug abuse, neglectful parenting and parentified children. It was simply too much for this author to handle.
Would I suggest reading STRINGS ATTACHED? Sure. It's something moderately entertaining to do. But I would definitely recommend borrowing it from the library over purchasing it.
|
| | |
|
|
