English Slacker by Chris Morton-a review
ENGLISH SLACKER by Chris Morton
I have to admit but I had mixed feelings on the book, The English Slacker by Chris Morton. To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite book but I didn’t hate the book entirely. The book is told from the point of view of the main character which is Chambers; there is no first name or whatnot just Chambers. I would like to describe him as your typical 18 year old living in England. From the looks of it, he is newly finished with college and is spending his last summer free before he has to embark on adult life. Throughout the course of the book Chambers and his friends are always getting together to get drunk or in their words, pissed; smoke fags and dope; and just hang together. At first, I just thought how typical just a group of friends getting together during the summer.
Throughout the book, the events are very random and spaced out (or at least it felt that way to me). Sometimes I had a hard time telling whether it really happened for real, a dream or drug trip or if it was a flashback. I admit that having a hard time determining what state of mind Chambers was in did create a bit of a frustration to me when it came to following the story. So in a nutshell Chambers pretty much goes through a whole chain of events which leads him to remember bits of his memory before his best friend Colin died.
The weird thing is the chains of events Chambers go through are very familiar so when he finally recalls the events that led up to Colin’s death, the events really start to make sense. It’s like those suspense movies that start out in the end result but you go through the movie watching the events of the movie that led up to the beginning of the movie. That’s what the book felt like to me. I do like those types of movies but often time, it leaves with a feeling of frustration in the middle or meat of the movie which is exactly how I feel about the book.
I felt Chambers was very typical but at the same time I felt like he was wimp. I felt like he would smoke and drink all the time for the sake of him not wanting to face the reality of things such as his friend’s death and having to grow up. Sometimes I felt like he didn’t know what to do with himself a lot like if he was alone after work or something, he was always trying to find some friends to hang out with or go to the bar in hopes of running into someone he knew; I mean what is wrong with taking time to yourself and taking it easy? Sometimes I got the vibe that Chambers acted like he was afraid to be alone or something.
If I had to rate the book as in 5 being the best and 1 being the worse, I would rate this book a 2 and a half as in the book was okay. I felt like following him through the events was an intrigue leaving you interested to tag along for the trip but there was some demerits in the sense that the book was a little confusing to follow sometimes and I felt like Chambers was a very immature character.
Copy supplied by author.
Review by Xtina R
A very nice and honest review, Xtina. You seem to have had mixed feelings about the main character, or the way it was presented was too confusing. The fact that you finished it, showed it had some interesting points that kept you staying with the story. If this is Morton’s first novel, perhaps he can use this as a guideline for his next book.
Great review Xtina. I could tell that you struggled with this, we have all read books like that. Some we find better than others in the end, this didn’t sound like one of those. Thanks for the honesty.
Hey Xtina, good job on the review considering your feelings for the overall story. I like that you were honest about your feelings and the main character. To be honest, I don’t think this is a book that would hold my attention and I know I would’ve put the book down, pushed it aside, then forgetting about it till I accidentally come across it one day. I’ve done that many times with books that don’t hold my interest, I just don’t have the endurance to get through them. I was like that in school, I’d cheat and get the cole’s notes, or wait till someone did a seminar on it to get the info on it. I know that’s bad, but eh, it worked for me. 😉
Interesting review Xtina. There have been a few where I did not want to post the review at TRC and had to inform the authors. They put a lot of effort into the work, but sometimes the storyline is so difficult to get through, I give up.
Thanks girls for reading my review and giving me kudos on reading the book the whole way through. Don’t get me wrong the book did have some intrigue in it but there were just some things in the book that didn’t do it for me. I was very happy in general to do a review but I felt like the best thing to do was just be honest. At least that’s what my fiance told me. Honesty is the best policy!!! LOL
Hi Xtina. Must have been a difficult review to write. If I am reading a book and it isn’t doing ‘it’ for me after several chapters, it is time to put it away. Kudos for sticking it out.
I enjoyed your review, Xtina!! I don’t think this is a book for me, just having slacker in the title!! That throws me off!!
LOL@Jules. Sometimes titles and covers are misleading. Personally if I saw a title like Murder at Goose Pimple Junction, no way in hell would I buy that. But Carmen loved it, and it sounds like a fun read. Who would have thought…..