Ron Currie, Jr.

I feel like the author is trying to say something really meaningful here about living life to its fullest and resigning yourself to your fate rather than moaning about the shitty hand life has dealt you or whatever. But it all falls apart when he introduces time travel, nonsensical conspiracy theory, terrorist plots, an unhealthy obsession with baseball, and all sorts of totally groan-worthy nonsensical plot twists. Every character in the book is not just talented and amazing, they are THE MOST TALENTED AND AMAZING PEOPLE in their given field. The brother is the most amazing baseball player, the main character is the smartest person, the dad is just an all around great guy (who has anger issues, but it only shows up when he's mad at someone we root for him to beat up). Every character has to have some extreme trauma in their past. The writing blurs the line between engaging and self-indulgent mess, and ultimately falls hard into the latter category. Seriously, at the halfway mark this book falls apart to such an extreme degree that it's like the author suddenly had a stroke or something. What a massive pile of garbage this book ends up being.… (more)