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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Dark Survivors at Society's Fringes, September 9, 2006
This review is from: 33 Snowfish (Paperback)
Adam Rapp has written another crisp one. It's the language, especially, that grips you and makes you eat your tears and laughter. From the first line -- "On top of everything else, Boobie's got the clap." -- I found myself devouring each next line in search of a gem. Here are a few:
"That hat of his was so orange it looked like it would have vitamin C in the flaps."
"There was so much blood on Boobie's shirt you could smell the metal in it, and it wasn't coming from the baby, because the baby was cleaner than a Christmas card."
"Boobie just stopped and stood there for a minute and looked up at the sky, which was so black it was like God burnt it."
"It's like there ain't no real life inside a place if you don't got no table."
"The sun was getting weak and everything was starting to look like metal."
Boobie, Custis, and Curl are painted with the freshest of brushes and rarest of strokes. What's particularly amazing is the way everything in this depraved world feels so cool and clean through Custis' eyes. Even though they're on the run from the police because of what Boobie did to his parents and are looking for a rich family to sell Boobie's baby brother to, he holds out hope that his gat, the Skylark, and Curl's trick money are somehow going to hold their lives together.
This novel "wasn't sad like tears are sad. It's sad like the weather is sad when you think it's spring but then one of those cold rains comes." While we don't usually get to experience the lives of the dark survivors at society's fringes, 33 SNOWFISH is Adam Rapp's way of showing us ourselves in the souls of the broken. It's clear that the more worries the heart has, the smaller and dimmer it gets, and that it might get snuffed out if not given the right amount of hope at just the right time.
Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, October 20, 2006
This review is from: 33 Snowfish (Paperback)
Author and playwright Adam Rapp has created a masterful tale of woe in 33 SNOWFISH. With all of the trappings of "high literature" (there are stream-of-consciousness passages and multiple narrators), the author transcends the Problem Novel genre in this homage to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
Like many of Faulkner's novels, 33 SNOWFISH depicts society's lowest, common denominator while somehow managing to make these characters three-dimensional and fairly sympathetic. They are at once repulsive and pitiful; the reader is drawn into their lives much like commuters passing by a car wreck. One cannot help but look or want to lend a hand.
This is the story of Custis, Curl, and Boobie, two teen runaways and one pre-teen. Each has a myriad of issues and a litany of anti-social behaviors that include pyromania, murder, prostitution, robbery, kidnapping, and weapon possession. We are dragged along on their ill-fated journey, where we learn about their past while watching them in the disastrous present. That the author finds a way to redeem one of the characters by the end of the story is a remarkable and credible feat.
Many reviewers issue a disclaimer about 33 SNOWFISH due to the lives of kids on the street being so graphically and dispassionately outlined. There are many adult themes and some profanity. This book is not for the squeamish. But neither is it a trite, formulaic, sensationalistic bombshell; every word, every paragraph, and every page is essential to the journey of these characters, even though only one meets an end that is appealing.
Rapp is to be commended for not "dumbing down" a story of the street for a wider readership. Many other young adult novels have a didactic message that is cumbersome and cliché, sounding a warning as loud as a tuba, leaving nothing for the reader to reflect upon. But 33 SNOWFISH is that rare book that is art for the sake of art, that makes the reader think for the message, that makes its audience reach for the gift of understanding, and the novel does it without wasting any words or pages.
Faulkner's fans and his detractors will appreciate this novel, as will young adult readers. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by: Mark Frye, author and reviewer
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
33 SnowFish, January 19, 2006
33 Snowfish
At first, this book looked like it should have been burned. If you look at the book's title and cover illustrations had me thinking that I probably shouldn't read this novel. Surprisingly, the story's first page was very catchy. The thing about this book is the use of language because it's gritty and harsh, just how life is. The first sentence of the book goes "On top of everything else, Boobie's got the clap". Author Adam Rapp has the main character, Custis, a 13 year old boy, tell the truth about his life exactly how it is, an orphan on the streets, no sugar coating it! Curl is a 15 year old drug-addicted prostitute that has a peculiarly happy disposition given the position that she's in. Boobie is a troubled 19 year old boy, obsessed with fire. The best part of this book is the way that the author has three sides to the story, each of the main characters, and blend them so fluently. This hopeless-turned-dark story had me on edge from page one...READ IT!
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