A book, location, plot and story with a a lot of potential, this kept me reading until the end. However, having reached the end I am not entirely sure that the destination was worth the voyage.

electric atmosphere in family relationships. ( )

John Egan is a precocious young Irish Lad and our narrator. Harry Potter, except, nobody selected him for Wizard school. The angst of his lower middle class life and insights into the human condition are spun in beautiful, sparse, rich prose. The author, an Irish woman born in London and law educated in Australia, was a Mann Booker Prize Finalist in 2006 for this effort. ( )

See tag. ( )

I didn't get this one. The first 120 pages were spent establishing that 1) John Egan is big for eleven. Really big. 2) John's parents are freaked out by how big he is 3) John is sad because he parents don't treat him like a little boy anymore. 4) John is interested in detecting lies.

Once those things are established (i.e., pummelled through the reader's skull) through a variety of rather repetitive scenes, there's a plot shift, which at first feels interesting because finally something's happening! or, well, almost happening. Then I got vicariously addicted to meth via Nic Sheff's "Tweak," after which I was (barely) able to stomach the rest of "Carry Me Down." ( )