Ugh. That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of this book. So be prepared to see a lot of it.
This was a deep, deep book that delves into the mind of a talented, but unnoticed boy who grows jealous of his best friend. Gene, the main character of the book, is over shadowed by his athletic, handsome, popular, charismatic, best friend, Finny. Obviously, this causes a lot of one sided tension between them. To make matters worse, Finny often tries to drag Gene away from his studies. In a fit of jealousy, Gene madly reasons that Finny can not bear the fact that Gene is smarter than him, and is trying to distract him so that Finny may top him in class as well. This tension builds up, until finally, he vents by, basically, shoving him off a tree.
I didn't really find this book to be too bad, but neither was it very good. A majority of the characters seemed exaggerated, and didn't seem real enough. Ironically, the most believable character, for me, was Leper, a sheltered boy who goes to war, and cracks under pressure.
I'm certain that this was a wonderful book, and a great read. For adults. But for 13, 14 year olds? Definitely not.
