Atticus : Novel, A

Rating:
Summary: An average book deserves an average rating
Review: As a Jesuit High School student we are required to do a few summer reading assignments. This of course is not the problem because I enjoy reading more than watching TV. We get our first idea of what we could read for the summer when we receive a book list and read a short summary of the different book choices. Atticus by Ron Hansen was the first book that caught my attention because for one mystery novels are my favorite and it sounded like it might have a big twist in the end. Well it certainly had a big twist at the end but as for other characteristics of a murder mystery Atticus lacked significantly. The novel starts out simply enough a 67 year-old Colorado Rancher, Atticus, who made it big in the Oil Industry loses an uncontrollable younger son, Scott, who is about as eccentric as they come with titles that include artist, drug addict, and alcoholic. Then as Atticus goes down to Mexico to retrieve his son's body he uncover clues that lead him to believe that maybe his son really didn't kill himself but instead was murdered. The entire body of the book is the most boring I have ever had the chance to read. The dialogue is so difficult to follow I was almost inclined to stop reading the book and just start a completely new novel for the summer. I'm glad I stuck it out because the only reason I gave this book three stars was because of the ending. Even though it took almost 1/4 of the way into chapter six, the climax, to figure out what was even happening this was the only part of the entire book I even liked because of the twist at the end. If I learned one thing from reading this book it was that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel and that light in Atticus was the last page when I finally was done with the torture I had been through for 10 days. Although I didn't like Atticus that much that certainly doesn't mean you won't like so please by all means disregard what I just said in the above review and just read something, that is all I ask, just read something.