My Goodreads and Amazon review of The Slip by Lucas Schaefer (Rated 3) – The Skip. I wanted to like The Slip by Lucas Schaefer after the New York Times described the author as a “bold new voice” and his debut novel as “potent.” I thought a novel about the cold case of a missing teenage boy, set in a Texas gym, would be a cathartic substitute for my urge to punch something whenever I hear the news these days. Instead, forcing myself to finish the book in case I’d missed something the reviewer had seen, I found a tangle of people and tropes. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I don’t care if my characters are likable, but they must be engaging. Schaefer’s are tiresome. Even promising tales dead-end, like leads in a cold case. The author occasionally offers astute social commentary, and he invites readers into the world of boxing gyms, whose bag-punching rhythms he captures. Too bad the book itself doesn’t produce that same dynamic effect. Unless you like flabby narratives, I advise you to give The Slip, the skip.
Pull your punches and skip The Slip
Why writers read: “Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading.” – André Maurois
