Monday, April 18, 2011

The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers

Thank you to Water Brook's Blogging for Books program for giving me this book to review.


Showbiz! Grady is on tour with Professor Floyd, the local Feechie Show Master. Grady and Floyd travel from city to city putting on shows were Grady is the only "real" Feechie in the civil world. But when the show losses it's attraction to the public they must making a living some other way.

Grady was a good character. I think he could be fondly liked by underdog and big-timer alike. With him being an orphan, his all around ugly looks, and his only "friend" being a grouch everyone is sure to take pity on the boy.

Since the book is in first person the fact that Grady hasn't been to a school shows. Rogers wrote the book like anyone without a formal education would. Ain't that odd? I think Rogers broke every rule in the English language at some point in the book. I know it was an attempt to make the book realistic but I couldn't read it without getting a headache.

The plot was all around slow for me. It took me a week to read this book; normally a book about this size would take a couple days. I didn't really understand what Rogers goal for the plot was till the last 100 pages or so. Though on the last 100 pages the book picked up and then the last 20 pages he made this book even better. He had a nice happy ending for this over all sad story.

Rogers' did a good job on making a book I think a lot of people will enjoy. It just wasn't for me.

C