stephee's review against another edition
3.0
This is possibly a case of the wrong book at the wrong time for me. However, publishers, if you're going to put a blurb on the front cover that compares an author to Mark Twain and J D Salinger the book had better be freaking amazing. This one wasn't.
manggaheaux's review
First of all, there was a bunch of words strung together into sentences but made no sense.
Second, I found it very uncomfortable reading a white character say the n-word and I’m assuming this book was written by a white man? I couldn’t really find anything on the author but nevertheless it was still uncomfortable.
Based on the pages I’ve read so far (I didn’t get very far) the stereotypes is just flying everywhere.
The book is plain boring with a pretentious main character who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.
Might I also add the white savior complex?
Just not a good book and I’m angry I wasted my money on it.
Second, I found it very uncomfortable reading a white character say the n-word and I’m assuming this book was written by a white man? I couldn’t really find anything on the author but nevertheless it was still uncomfortable.
Based on the pages I’ve read so far (I didn’t get very far) the stereotypes is just flying everywhere.
The book is plain boring with a pretentious main character who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.
Might I also add the white savior complex?
Just not a good book and I’m angry I wasted my money on it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Antisemitism, Drug use, and Murder
Minor: Racial slurs
white character says n-word and it’s not even censored because author might be white too, idkpowisamy's review against another edition
1.0
So although I normally think that I am quite reasonable when reviewing books, I feel like I need an except to the rule and this is how I feel about the November Criminals. I just don't like this book.
There are lots of bad reviews for the book but after seeing the film trailer, I still wanted to read it but I feel like they are different and I can see why because the plot of the book was just not good. The only reason that I wanted to finish it was that it was short and I wanted to do a review.
I didn't really connect to the characters and really didn't like the way that the characters reacted to each other. There are also holocaust jokes throughout the book and there is a massive paragraph of them and I just don't accept this and am surprised that this was published. I also just didn't like the writing style.
There are lots of bad reviews for the book but after seeing the film trailer, I still wanted to read it but I feel like they are different and I can see why because the plot of the book was just not good. The only reason that I wanted to finish it was that it was short and I wanted to do a review.
I didn't really connect to the characters and really didn't like the way that the characters reacted to each other. There are also holocaust jokes throughout the book and there is a massive paragraph of them and I just don't accept this and am surprised that this was published. I also just didn't like the writing style.
brocc's review against another edition
1.0
Mmm. A lot of people relate this to The Catcher in the Rye, and I can see what they're saying as the narrator in this, Addison, is very smart and slightly bitter, like Holden Caulfield. However I didn't gel well with tCintR, and this book just felt like a slog to get through. DNF.
lilymkara's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
ik ur not supposed to like the main character but he wasn’t even unlikeable in like a fun cool way, just unlikeable. the book didn’t go anywhere. also multiple uses of the r slur tho i guess this book was published in 2011. at least the writing style was interesting
glains's review
So, I just found out I won a copy. Hope the book's good.
~*~
Well, I gave it a go. I read The November Criminals about halfway, then gave up. Which I feel bad for doing. I mean, I won a copy, the least I could do is read the whole thing, right? But I'm not gonna waste valuable hours of my life on a book that fails to hold my attention just because I won a free copy. Although free stuff is nice.
So anyway, my review. There's nothing wrong with The November Criminals, it just bored me to tears. Nothing happened for the first five chapters and I didn't feel like reading the rest to see if it would stay that way. I just assumed the rest of the book would be boring.
But anyway, I was under the impression that the book was about high school senior Addison Schacht's obsession with solving the murder of a classmate, but all he ever really does is ramble on about the many school asemblies he has to attend at Kennedy, or his getting stoned with his not-girlfriend Digger, or how he likes to screw his not-girlfriend Digger, or how all his teachers are morons, and then some stuff about his father. Nothing about murder solving in there, or at least in the first half I read.
Anyway, perhaps if the characters had been a bit more likable, or the writing more to my taste (not that it was bad or anything), then maybe I would've been able to finish it. But they weren't, so I didn't. Ah well.
~*~
Well, I gave it a go. I read The November Criminals about halfway, then gave up. Which I feel bad for doing. I mean, I won a copy, the least I could do is read the whole thing, right? But I'm not gonna waste valuable hours of my life on a book that fails to hold my attention just because I won a free copy. Although free stuff is nice.
So anyway, my review. There's nothing wrong with The November Criminals, it just bored me to tears. Nothing happened for the first five chapters and I didn't feel like reading the rest to see if it would stay that way. I just assumed the rest of the book would be boring.
But anyway, I was under the impression that the book was about high school senior Addison Schacht's obsession with solving the murder of a classmate, but all he ever really does is ramble on about the many school asemblies he has to attend at Kennedy, or his getting stoned with his not-girlfriend Digger, or how he likes to screw his not-girlfriend Digger, or how all his teachers are morons, and then some stuff about his father. Nothing about murder solving in there, or at least in the first half I read.
Anyway, perhaps if the characters had been a bit more likable, or the writing more to my taste (not that it was bad or anything), then maybe I would've been able to finish it. But they weren't, so I didn't. Ah well.
rosseroo's review
3.0
The shadow of Holden Caufield falls heavy (and possibly unfairly) across this debut novel, which features a similarly disaffected and obnoxious protagonist. Here, the setting is Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1999, as teenage pot-dealer and Latin whiz Addison slogs his way through senior year of the Gifted and Talented program at his local high school (a very thinly veiled version of D.C.'s real Wilson High School). The book is written as the answer to an admissions essay question to the University of Chicago (although that's not clear until the very end), and is thus a nonstop barrage of Addison's first-person voice. This voice is attempting to explain his best and worst qualities by relating a convoluted and very digressive story about his reaction to the recent murder of a classmate (the details of which are heavily inspired by the real-life 1997 "Starbucks Murders" triple-homicide in D.C.).
What follows is Addison's rambling, inept investigation into the unsolved murder, in which he is aided and abetted by his BFWB (Best Friend With Benefits) named Digger (real name Phoebe, a direct Catcher in the Rye reference). Along the way, we get heavy doses of Addison's take on the world, other people, relationships, etc., the vast majority of which are smart but bitter assessments. About halfway into the book, this starts to get pretty old -- not because stories need to have likable narrators, but simply because it's exhausting spending time with a privileged teenage misanthrope. I actually had a close friend in high school almost exactly like Addison (a whip smart pot dealer who heaped scorn on almost everyone and everything), and I got sick of him too. The other difficulty I had with the book is that the targets of Addison's withering scorn are far too stereotypical to be a challenge, from racially clueless class queen to rich boy wigger dope dealer to redneck racist, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Fortunately, his half-baked (pun not intended) sleuthing is just barely interesting enough to keep the pages turning.
I guess if you're looking for a book that captures a somewhat unpleasant side of teenage boys internal lives, this is worth checking out. It's also potentially fun for folks from D.C. to spot the local settings. (Actually, the author uses a strangely inconsistent approach. Some things are thinly veiled, like the high school name, or the local movie theater being the Camelot vs. the real-life Avalon. But other locations are very specific, including the address of the murder victim, which happens to be three blocks from where I grew up. In one really odd note, Addison talks about the urine stench in the D.C. metro system. I've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in DC's subways, on lines of every hue, and I've never once smelled urine on a train. He must be mixing that up with New York.) In any event, there's definitely a certain intelligence at work here, whether or not it's compelling probably depends largely on the reader's taste for Addison -- a few pages is all it'll take for you to know.
What follows is Addison's rambling, inept investigation into the unsolved murder, in which he is aided and abetted by his BFWB (Best Friend With Benefits) named Digger (real name Phoebe, a direct Catcher in the Rye reference). Along the way, we get heavy doses of Addison's take on the world, other people, relationships, etc., the vast majority of which are smart but bitter assessments. About halfway into the book, this starts to get pretty old -- not because stories need to have likable narrators, but simply because it's exhausting spending time with a privileged teenage misanthrope. I actually had a close friend in high school almost exactly like Addison (a whip smart pot dealer who heaped scorn on almost everyone and everything), and I got sick of him too. The other difficulty I had with the book is that the targets of Addison's withering scorn are far too stereotypical to be a challenge, from racially clueless class queen to rich boy wigger dope dealer to redneck racist, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Fortunately, his half-baked (pun not intended) sleuthing is just barely interesting enough to keep the pages turning.
I guess if you're looking for a book that captures a somewhat unpleasant side of teenage boys internal lives, this is worth checking out. It's also potentially fun for folks from D.C. to spot the local settings. (Actually, the author uses a strangely inconsistent approach. Some things are thinly veiled, like the high school name, or the local movie theater being the Camelot vs. the real-life Avalon. But other locations are very specific, including the address of the murder victim, which happens to be three blocks from where I grew up. In one really odd note, Addison talks about the urine stench in the D.C. metro system. I've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in DC's subways, on lines of every hue, and I've never once smelled urine on a train. He must be mixing that up with New York.) In any event, there's definitely a certain intelligence at work here, whether or not it's compelling probably depends largely on the reader's taste for Addison -- a few pages is all it'll take for you to know.
fncll's review
1.0
I loved Catcher in the Rye when I first read it as a teenager. And, perhaps improbably to those who don’t know me well, I loved it even more as an adult. So I wanted to love [b:The November Criminals|6829241|The November Criminals|Sam Munson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320538888s/6829241.jpg|7039506], Sam Munson’s obvious homage to—and in some manner an update of—Salinger’s still controversial classic. But outside the occasional witticism or insight from Addison Schacht, the would-be Holden Caulfield of this excessively long and tedious novel (none of which are credible coming from him), there’s nothing here to love. Or hate. Or care even a little about. Munson even managed to make the parents of Schacht’s murdered classmate both unrealistic and unsympathetic. Perhaps the only interesting feature of the novel is the framing device that is revealed toward, but not nearly closely enough to, the end of the book…a meager dessert after a forgettable meal.
brocc's review
1.0
Mmm. A lot of people relate this to The Catcher in the Rye, and I can see what they're saying as the narrator in this, Addison, is very smart and slightly bitter, like Holden Caulfield. However I didn't gel well with tCintR, and this book just felt like a slog to get through. DNF.
fianaigecht's review
2.0
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review but unfortunately will not be finishing the book because 52% of the way through, I still have no idea why I ought to care at all about any of it. The narrative style is frustrating with a lot of irrelevant details, and the use of colloquialisms and the word 'like' might make the dialogue more realistic, but it also makes it harder to read. There's plenty happening, but the way it's told meant I'm not engaged or interested. I've seen a few reviews comparing it to Catcher in the Rye, which is one of my least favourite books ever, and I can see where they're coming from -- Addison is frustrating, whiny, and thinks himself so different to the world around him when really he's just annoying. I dunno, it just rubbed me up the wrong way, and I couldn't get invested in any of the action because of the way it was told so dispassionately.
More...