This book was a powerful walk through the seedier side of the New England back woods in the 19th century. Ren is a one handed orphan, without hope of finding an adoptive family because of his disability - and with a short military future to look forward to. But all that changes when someone claiming to be his long lost brother - Benjamin Nabb, comes to claim him.

The themes of the book are strongly reminiscent of an American Dickens, even if the writing is much more modern. This book is a very good read, and draws the reader in to the mystery of what once happened to Ren, who he is and how he got to be where he was.

This is a story that draws you in and keeps you reading until you turn the last page, and put it down with a satisfied sigh. ( )

This is the story of Ren, who grew up an orphan and was suddenly, despite missing a hand, taken in by a man named Benjamin, a thief who had a lie for every occasion. Tom, a former schoolteacher and Benjamin's friend, is his partner in crime as they determine to use Ren to fleece others. The descriptive prose moves the story along as you get to know Ren, Benjamin, and a rich group of secondary characters. The plot suddenly starts moving about 2/3 into the book, making it a little uneven but it's overall a solid historical fiction read set in New England.

I think if I had been in a different mood I would have enjoyed it more. Ren, Benjamin and Tom were likable characters in a lovable rogue kind of way, though there's less action at the beginning. There's graveyard escapades (bodies for dissection), a landlady who yells everything because she can't hear, and a conspiracy in a small New Hampshire mining town. I'm not sure why, but though I enjoyed it I always felt like I was hovering above the story, never quite sinking down into it and enjoying it thoroughly. ( )

I'm torn by this book. It was a fun read, but good heavens, I expected more. Sadly, I think the over-the-top praise by such luminaries as Junot Diaz and Dan Chaon do the book no favors. They simply raise the reader's expectations beyond the novel's capacity.

Here's the problem: the narrative is entertaining--(a bit Dickens, a bit Robert Louis Stevenson, although in flavor only, the quality does not withstand comparison)--but the ending is far too contrived and tidy, too neat by far for there to be any real resonance; and the characters are too predictable and even, dare I say, stereotypical. I understand this sort of thing worked nicely for Mr. Dickens, but times have changed and frankly, it feels imitative and unsatisfying here, at least to this reader.

As well, the writing needed a good editor...for example, the prose is bogged down by far too many connecting verbs: "....and a tin that was labeled Molasses." "The small man chose a jar that was yellowish orange." These two examples are in consecutive sentences on a page I picked at random. Couldn't any decent editor have changed these to "...a tin labeled Molasses." and "The small man chose a yellowish orange jar." This sort of sloppy writing kept snapping me out of the story. Similarly, one character shouts all her dialogue and we are ever-reminded of this because every word she utters IS RENDERED IN CAPS. It become tiresome quickly, as does the (only) character who speaks in phonetics, e.g. "They musta done it fah warmth, she kept saying. They musta found each othah, in tha dahk." It makes the prose sound amateurish, and really, I think Ms. Tinti is a better writer than she's exhibiting here.

For all these, perhaps overly critical nitpicks, I repeat that I found the book entertaining. The perfect novel for an afternoon in the hammock. So enjoy, by all means, and perhaps, like me, you'll look forward to seeing what Ms. Tinti does next. There's enormous potential here. ( )

Young Ren lives a somewhat Dickensian life in New England during what seems to be the nineteenth century, at first in an orphanage run by Catholic brothers who will line up their charges now and then whenever someone wishes to pay enough to take a boy away (the girl orphans disappear somewhere into the hands of Sisters who live elsewhere). Otherwise the boys are fated to a hard life, sold into the army if they are not claimed by the age of fourteen or so. Ren remains unchosen primarily because he is mysteriously missing a hand, until a man arrives, claiming to be his long-lost brother.

Benjamin Nab may or may not be related to Ren and may or may not know why Ren is missing a hand, but he's certainly no more on the up and up than Ren, who has become a good thief, practicing nicking things while at the orphanage. Benjamin is a teller of tall tales and immediately uses Ren as a way to worm his way into the sympathies of various people he can fleece or steal or beg from. Benjamin meets up with his friend Tom, a former teacher who is frequently drunk in taverns. Ren's new life involves fake (or not so fake) Elixirs, Resurrection Men, an all-powerful factory owner and his thugs, more orphans and much more.

The adventures seem bizarre and picaresque, difficult to fathom where they are going or what it all adds up to until the very end. The characters are interestingly drawn but not terribly sympathetic. This was somewhat like reading _Oliver Twist_ without most of the romanticism or an ending with a wealthy family and comfort to relieve all the depictions of the dark and dangerous life in the underworld. It perhaps is a tale more suited to our times with moral ambiguity, dysfunctional societies and families and lives, and a focus more on surviving than reflection. ( )