Book: Dawn by Kevin Brooks
Release date: December 1, 2009
Publisher: Chicken House
From: Publisher
Summary:
Dawn’s dad is a recovering substance abuser, a one-time child molester, and…a born-again Christian. Religion: That’s his latest addiction. But as far as Dawn is concerned, the Man Upstairs has robbed her of the father she once loved–drugs, drinks, and all.
Which is why Dawn’s gone shopping for Bibles. For research. To know her enemy. Because, to get her old dad back, she’s going to have to do away with this God guy.
She’d just better pray that the fallout from her father’s past life of crime doesn’t catch up to her first.
*****
I hate to be so critical but I don’t think there was a single thing I liked about Dawn. I really can’t think of one thing right now. It just wasn’t a book for me, I guess.
Dawn is the story of a fifteen-year-old girl named Dawn Bundy. She lives with her mother because her father disappeared over two years ago. Ever since then Dawn just hangs out by herself or with her two dogs, Jesus and Mary. She doesn’t know why her dad disappeared but she does know that he wasn’t the same dad anymore and that it was God’s fault. So she decides to kill God.
Well, I can tell you right now that that kind of turned me off the book. I’m not into reading about religion and this one had quite a bit of it, even if it was just her reasons why she was against it. I didn’t see how thsi was linked to the plot.
Another thing I couldn’t get past was Dawn. She didn’t have a personality and I couldn’t bring myself to like her. She didn’t try to make friends or change the situation she was in. She accepted that that was how things were going to be and lived like that.
The plot was pretty much non-existent until the very end of the book. Dawn just went about her life until at the end of the book something actually happened. I didn’t like what happened or the way the book ended. It was weird.
Overall, Dawn is not something I would recommend. It wasn’t very well written and it was disturbing to me. I hope Kevin Brooks other books are better than this one.
Writing: 7/10
Characters: 6/10
Plot: 5/10
Ending: 5/10
Originality: 8/10
Overall: 31/50=D-
Cover: 6/10=D-
Hm, interesting. I was planning on reading this one, but now I’m not so sure. I read Candy by Kevin Brooks and I really liked it, and Kissing the Rain, which I thought was okay.
NO PERSONALITY? So she was like a Zombie? Thanks for the honest review, you did a great job 🙂
Ouch! Yes, at fifteen you would think a girl would have a better grasp on what’s right or what’s wrong. “I’m going to kill God, so I can have my pervert, alcoholic dad back” The plot itself doesn’t make sense unless you’re writing about a severely mentally disturbed person with NO consciense or care about anyone but her own needs. And why would she “need” the alcoholic, child molester dad back? Since I haven’t read this book, I can’t say too much about it, but if the premise of the plot is some girl who’s old enough to know better, wanting her disturbed version of her father back, (what about the people who might get hurt by this?) enought to KILL God, then this won’t be the book for me. Wow.
hmm.. very interesting, never thought KB would come up with a situation like that, & i’ve read Candy by him, it was thee BEST, than Road of th Dead, and it was MY FAVORITE, and half way of Lucas, well that one was okay.. and i sure do hope KB do write better books. No hater marks just honest oppinons, but good review.
I just finished reading Dawn, actually. You might have a different perspective of the book, but for me….I loved it. I’m going to keep reading Kevin Brooks’s books.
I loved it too. It’s unique. I love all of Kevin Brooks’s books 🙂 Especially Candy. He jumps into subjects other writers are scared to write about and I respect that. I’m sure there are plenty of 15 year old girls who contemplate if God is as great as people make him out to be since life sucks so much. It’s a believable plot and topic.
I actually found that I quite liked Dawn, though I can see how many other readers could come to such seperate conclusions. Speaking from the perspective of someone who has dealt with several people who went through very similar experiences to what Dawn did, I have to say that Kevin Brooke’s portrayal of the character was almost startlingly accurate. And just a note to Mardel, you’re a little mixed up: Dawn’s dad was a drug-abuser and alchoholic before he discovered God, it wasn’t until AFTER he was ‘born-again’ that he became a child molester. Its because she doesn’t want to think about what her dad did, or how she really feels about the whole thing, that she targets what she sees as the source of her dad’s sudden change in behaviour and tries to be rid of it. She does acknowledge at one point in the book that she’s trying so hard to make herself okay with what happened that she’s making herself not okay. Just thought I’d clarify a bit ^^
i am half way through the book and i am pretty confused an the religion thing is a bit too much for me
I thought it was really good :/ .