Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin

[description from amazon]

Sophie Blue started wearing a black skirt and Midnight Noir lipstick on her last birthday. It was also the day her father disappeared. Or spontaneously combusted. Which is sort of bad timing, since a Popsicle truck with tinted windows has started circling the house.

Kenny Fade is a basketball god. His sneakers cost more than his Jeep. He's the guy all the ladies (and their mommas) want. Bad.

Sophie Blue and Kenny Fade don't have a thing in common. Aside from being reasonably sure they're losing their minds.

Acclaimed author Sean Beaudoin's wildly innovative novel combines uproarious humor with enough plot twists to fill a tube sock. Part thriller, part darkly comic philosophical discussion, and accompanied by a comic book interstitial, Fade to Blue is a whip-smart romp that keeps readers guessing until the last paragraph.

Review:

I...I don't even know what to say about this book. I don't even feel like I should review because I did not understand it at all, but I requested it so I kind of have to. This is a short review though.

This book is unique, I'll give you that, but so hard to follow that its weirdness is overshadowed. There are many twists that I didn't see coming, but there were so many and they were so odd that I had no idea what was going on. The book also switches from first person narrative to third person and back again, always focusing on different characters. The chapters are so short and change focus so often that it was difficult to follow each character's storyline and thoughts without getting them confused. And getting the characters confused wasn't hard because they were awfully flat. The book was so focused on the plot that it forgot all about the characters. Each character was mainly defined by their storyline rather than having personality traits.

The comic in the middle of the book, while entertaining and interesting, also slowed the book down a bit.

Fade to Blue is probably one of those books that is good if you think about it a lot and you closely examine it and its ~meaning~ and whatnot, but that doesn't make it any less confusing. I really have no idea what went on in this book, but maybe if you really like crazy weird stuff you'll enjoy it.

5/10

Links: Sean's website

Little, Brown/Hardcover/$16.99/Amazon/B&N/Borders/Indiebound