A. F. Kay crafted a wonderful YA coming-of-age book that contained all of the element necessary for a full 5 star rating. There was mystery, great expectations, surprise betrayal, crestfallen grief over diminished future aspirations, friendship bonding, humor, stellar narration and much more. However, this has got to be the most heavily-laden stat dump books I’ve listened to in a long time. The author needs to contemplate on one the Delphic Oracle’s maxims, “In all things, moderation”. This goes doubly so for audiobook listeners since they mostly can’t contemplate on all of the level and attribute changes without stopping, rewinding and re-listening, hoping to catch the important parts.
Even so, the strength of the story, characters and narrator acts as a salve to sooth the disrupting listening experience.
Onto Book 2.