A review by anneaustex
Don't Skip Out on Me, by Willy Vlautin
4.0
Horace Hooper has lived for several years on a ranch where he is cared for like a son by Mr and Mrs Reese. But Horace yearns to be someone-- a professional boxer. He wants to make a name for himself so he leaves the Reeses, the ranch, the horses and dogs and heads to Las Vegas where he can obtain a trainer and prepare for his new life as a boxer.
Filled with beautiful writing, characters that a reader can love, and a story you won't want to put down, this book packs a gut-wrenching wallop. Willy Vlautin knows how to draw the reader in with his prose: "Mr Reese had told him that life, at its core, was a cruel burden because we had the knowledge that we were born to die. We were born with innocent eyes and those eyes had to see pain and death and deceit and violence and heartache. If we were lucky we lived long enough to see most everything we love die. But, he said, being honorable and truthful took a little of the sting out of it. It made life bearable."
This book contains some fairly graphic scenes of Horace's boxing matches and the injuries he sustains so it may not be for all readers. However, anyone who cares to take a chance with Horace and the Reeses will receive the payoff of a story delivered by a master storyteller.
I received an ARC of this book as a part of LibraryThing Early Readers.
Filled with beautiful writing, characters that a reader can love, and a story you won't want to put down, this book packs a gut-wrenching wallop. Willy Vlautin knows how to draw the reader in with his prose: "Mr Reese had told him that life, at its core, was a cruel burden because we had the knowledge that we were born to die. We were born with innocent eyes and those eyes had to see pain and death and deceit and violence and heartache. If we were lucky we lived long enough to see most everything we love die. But, he said, being honorable and truthful took a little of the sting out of it. It made life bearable."
This book contains some fairly graphic scenes of Horace's boxing matches and the injuries he sustains so it may not be for all readers. However, anyone who cares to take a chance with Horace and the Reeses will receive the payoff of a story delivered by a master storyteller.
I received an ARC of this book as a part of LibraryThing Early Readers.