ARC Review: The November Criminals

Title: The November Criminals
Series: N/A, Stand alone
Author: Sam Munson
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group
Publication Date: November 4th 2015
Pages: 272
My Rating: 3 stars

Addison Schacht has a lot on his mind. Getting into college, keeping up his relationship with his not girlfriend, Digger, and finally, selling drugs to his classmates. But when a guy in his class called Kevin is murdered, it is suddenly dominant in Addison's mind. They weren't friends, but his death has struck a chord with Addison. This book basically is Addison's response to a college essay, What are your worst qualities? This story follows along those lines. This isn't your typical feel good contemporary. This is the story of Addison, a boy obsessed with drugs, murder and he knows that deep down he isn't a good person. Don't expect happy endings from this book, don't expect things to be softened down.

I wanted more.

I wanted to be shocked, and I wanted a feel good contemporary that would give me a whole whirlwind of emotions. I didn't expect this book.

I didn't expect it's dark and nitty nature, usually that wouldn't bother me, I'm a fan of that kind of book...It's just that this book didn't feel complete enough. It was the kind of book that screamed potential into the never-ending void of YA books out there in this universe.

It yelled PROMISE.

But what did it deliver?

A mediocre story with tedious details and a lot of swearing that would so not be acceptable in a college essay. Also, overuse of the word "Like."

Like come on.

The writing was good, and I can understand why a lot of people loved this book. But I also get the reason why a lot of people didn't. We were promised Catcher in the Rye, a book I've never read but it's a classic so it must be good, and instead we got a basic story with a standard main character and little to no development.

The main source of development came from a side character named Alex! That's not what I wanted!

I wanted more.