caitlinxmartin's review against another edition
3.0
This novel had me absolutely riveted for the first two-thirds of its story. Donald, the young main character of How the Trouble Started, is utterly engaging. His emotional and intellectual journey towards understanding the events that occurred when he was essentially a toddler is a compelling and brutally honest one. The realities that he experiences as a consequence of his own actions are heartbreaking and resonant even when you grasp the horror of "the trouble." It is this resonance that breaks your heart and mind wide open as you glimpse emotion and struggle that you recognize as it is experienced through the eyes of an overgrown child who has had no support in dealing with his own life. As poor and questionable as his choices and acts are he is still worthwhile and knowable and this aspect of the novel shakes the reader to the core.
And then we come to the last third of the novel. It feels as if the writer either ran out of steam or was told to keep it short as he barrels his way towards an incoherent, incomplete, and inconsistent resolution marring the effect of an otherwise brilliant novel. Definitely worth the read, but be forewarned. There be dragons.
And then we come to the last third of the novel. It feels as if the writer either ran out of steam or was told to keep it short as he barrels his way towards an incoherent, incomplete, and inconsistent resolution marring the effect of an otherwise brilliant novel. Definitely worth the read, but be forewarned. There be dragons.
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