Sleepers

Rating:
Summary: So Unbelivable You Will Cry
Review: These were one of those true stories that after you have read it you either feel as if you would literally go to any extent to change these boys back to the way they were or you just wish you had never read this book because it is so sad. At the same time you know that through that whole book you could not put it down because it was so good. Even when Lorenzo Carcaterra is explaining things and telling you what should be boring details
you want to keep reading because its so different and makes you wish you could have been there when they were growing up because there lives were so happy and uncomplicated.
After the tragic time of them being in the delinquite home you see the difference in the boys from when you had just started reading the book. And its not just a little change of the thinking or there apperance but instead it completely changed them. It changed them in a way that you could feel it inside YOURSELf the change of these young boys. What the gaurds did to them mentally, physically, and sexually were more horrible than evil itself. For what they did was against goodness and inocence itself.
I read a couple literary criticism and what they said was pretty much that they could'nt believe because it was so horrible to think that something like that could really happen. That they neended hard core evidence because they just can't "comprehend" something like this could really happen. But sometimes we must realize that not all true stories end in a happily ever after like in most books we read and almost all the movies we watch. Some are just life. This story may or may not be true but even if it isnt we still need to realize that things like this happen and this story really shows what happens when we find out about what is happening outside our perfect or almost perfect lives. This book is not for just anybody i think it is for those who can take the truth no matter if it comes in it's pritty raped box or not.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS A DEFINITE MUST READ BOOK!
Review: This book is about four best friends who only have each other. The story takes place in the dangerous streets of Hell's Kitchen, New York. They love and protect each other just like if they were real brothers. They love playing pranks on the citizens of the city; until one day one of their pranks goes totally wrong. They get sentenced to serve time in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. What they experience there will change their lives forever. One of them grows up to become a lawyer, another a journalist, and two become killers. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a great book. I can honestly say that this has been one of the best books I've ever read. This book has everything from humor to suspense. Lorenzo does a great job in describing and gives you exact details in every scene. He makes you go through, feel what they went through. There was many times when the book made me angry and made me burst out in tears; it's just so sad and heartbreaking. They were just children and the system didn't protect them. I thank Lorenzo for sharing such a personal and terrible story. He truly is a brave person and a great writer. I love this book and think that everyone should read it; trust me once you read it you will never forget it!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning tale of innocence lost
Review: This book is really divided into 3 distinct sections and while some have questioned the veracity of the entire story I found the first two sections very credible and I was more than willing to suspend my disbelief for the dramatic ending.
The story begins with a realistic depiction of growing up on the tough West Side streets of NYC in the early 1960's. The reader is introduced to a variety of neighborhood characters all of whom are recognizable types to anyone who spent their youth in a similar setting. The primary characters are four boys whose friendship and loyalty to one another forms the main anchor in their lives. These are likable kids who are at worst street hustlers but generally harmless as they go about their daily adventures in the streets.
A prank gone terribly wrong lands them in hot water and they are sentenced to an upstate juvenile facility. Here the horrific second part of their story unfolds in gripping detail as they are abused physically and sexually by a handful of sadistic prison guards. The scenes of abuse are depicted in chilling style and it is difficult to read this without almost being moved to tears.
The final section deals with revenge and how the neighborhood pulls together to exact it on the guards. Set 10 years after the boys are released, we find them in different but somehwhat predictable circumstances. By chance two of them run into the ringleader of the guards in a Manhattan bar and the story comes to a stunning if a bit less believable conclusion.
Sleepers is a page turner and the book is far better than the movie.

Rating:
Summary: A horrific, gripping coming of age story
Review: This book tells a hellish, intriguing, almost can't believe it tale of the consequences of a teenage boy's prank gone bad. On New York's West Side, in a Hell's kitchen neighborhood, four teenage boys, all friends, plot what they consider to be an innocent prank; ripping off a hot dog cart for some food. When the prank goes bad, and an innocent bystander gets hurt, the boys are punished by sending them off to a reform school. There they are subjected to torture, sexual and physical abuse, and various forms of emotional and psychological degradation; and that's from the guards. The author's vivid descriptions of the reform school experience(he's one of the four boys in this true story) turned my stomach, but made me want to keep reading at the same time.When the boys are finished doing their time, they come back to the neighborhood changed. Two parlay their reform school experience into a life of crime, and two choose more normal paths to follow as they enter adulthood; all four bearing emotional wounds that will never heal, and all four too traumatized by the experience to help each other. The most excellent twist to this story occurs when the two "bad" boys have a chance encounter with one of their most sadistic guards. What happens after that sets a brilliant plan for revenge into motion, the four boys (now men) together again (sort of), in a scheme to get back at their persecutors in a very public way. Although the plan for revenge works, the rewards are bittersweet. For the immediate period after they get their revenge, all four are together again, like in the old days. The reality is that the "bad" boys stay bad, and the "good" boys stay good, unified only by their inability to erase their horrific coming of age in an upstate reform school for boys. Damaged teenagers remain damaged adults. Makes me want to buy every teenage boy I know a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Like a smack upside the head
Review: This is a true story about Lorenzo (the author) who grew up in Hell's Kitchen and then after a tragic accident is sent to live in the Wilkinson home for boys. The abuse he suffers there is beyond horrifying - its downright sadistic. Never have I read a more riveting nonfiction novel (although the story about the girl in the box was a close second). Lorenzo and his friends have a very tragic live and two of his friends grow up to be contract killers because of it. This is a complex story and you should read it.