Momma Says to Read

I heard so many great things about this book and it started off well enough. Unfortunately, it started going downhill quickly and snowballed from there. I'm usually a fan of an unreliable narrator, but this one pushed that way past the limit. The story bounces from past to present, but not everything "seen" or "remembered" is reality. It's done by way of dreams, memories, and/or hallucinations that are all seen through a drug and alcohol induced haze. It's done in such a way that it's almost impossible to tell which is which, leading to some flipping back through the pages. I suppose that was intentional, but it mostly just caused confusion and irritation, especially when it became repetitive. Between that and the slow pace, I finally admitted defeat at about the fifty percent mark and started skimming. We finally do get the answers about Jack's murder, and even with skimming and a red herring or two thrown in, I was still able to figure out who did it. I didn't have the why of it all but in all honesty, by the time I finally got there, I didn't care enough about any of the characters for it to make much difference. The only character that I did like was Grayson, who also seemed to be the only sensible person in this rather convoluted tale. As I said, I heard good things about this one prior to reading it, and maybe it's just me, but it's safe to say that I was underwhelmed.