Elyssa East’s favorite artist produced a series of paintings based on the abandoned Dogtown wilderness near Gloucester, MA. Trying to find some spiritual growth she visited the area, heard some of the typical small town New England gossip that surrounds any area that’s been inhabited for hundreds of years and decided to write a book about the place.

It feels like she started out to write a biography of the artist, Marsden Hartley, found that wouldn’t make more than a short story then decided to add in the tale of a recent (1980’s) murder that took place inside of the Dogtown wilderness when THAT turned out to not be enough to flesh out a book the author then dug up every and any bit of trivia, folklore, rumor and anecdote she could find no matter how distantly related to the main subject, Dogtown. As an example when a somewhat famous poet is mentioned as having spent time in the area we’re also treated to the details of a school he taught at, every famous person who also taught at the school even if they had nothing to do with Dogtown. The story meanders; wandering from the past to the present while infrequently touching back on the 1980’s murder story.

There’s far too much padding added to the book. I struggled for far longer than necessary for a book of this length. In the end the I found it hard to follow and just wanted it to end. I’m sure there are better histories of the Gloucester area out there and while they may not touch on or even mention Dogtown that’s probably because in the grand scheme of things very little of real interest ever did happened there in it’s hundreds of years of existence.

Two Stars

Teenage Darren is dealing with many of the things typical teenagers do; Divorced and inattentive parents. A sibling who is a jerk, a drunk and possibly a drug dealer. Popularity or the lack thereof at school. Darren is also an artist and is planning out his own blockbuster movie and book series.
Enter Eric, a kindred nerd spirit who jumps wholeheartedly into Darren’s project helping flesh out and expand their stories. Eric also has a secret, one he’s terrified ‘they’ will find out about. Those he’s told in the past have dismissed it or thought him crazy. Eric can’t sleep and never has.
After fighting over a girl as only teenagers can Darren in anger blabs Eric’s secret to his brother who of course can’t keep it to himself. Things take a dark and sinister turn shortly thereafter.
Decent writing and an interesting plot line kept me reading late into the night. This one’s worth checking out.
{edit}
I normally don’t read the professional or other Amazon review until after I’ve written my own reviews. I must agree with the other reviewers who’ve commented on the ‘professional’ reviews. I didn’t find this ‘hilarious’, ‘funny as hell’ and I saw no ‘great jokes’. It WAS a good story but I didn’t feel it was in any way a comedy.

Four Stars

There’s no plot! Wait, no, that’s wrong. There IS a plot but it’s hiding. There’s a hint of it a little past the half-way point in the book but it really waits until nearly the very end to jump out of where it’s hiding and yell “Boo!”
At some point in time I wanted to thwack everyone in the story upside the head, some more than once. Some characters are silly, some are just annoyingly dense others are cruel and spiteful. The whole story is a weird combination of soap opera and gossip fest.

All that being said, I could not put this book down. It pulled me in and kept me rapt from cover to cover and in the end I wanted the story to keep going. This is well worth reading!

Four Stars