** 2 stars
Ugh. Okay, there was a pretty interesting concept buried in this book and I have to admit I read it really quickly. It definitely captured my interest. It might have helped that I was "trapped" in a cold car with a flat tire for about an hour!
Anyway, the book suffers from a couple things. First, the inevitable comparison with the far, far superior (and very hard to read), We Need to Talk About Kevin. Similar themes of parenting a difficult-to-understand child. But Shriver is a far better writer for one thing. I found the writing here to be quite clunky and repetitive.
Second, and really a quibble, but one I've seen other readers mention. There's no reason to name the character "Jake" and title the book "Finding Jake" which kept putting me in mind of the (again) much superior book "Defending Jacob". That book, too, was told mainly from the father's point of view. And, once again, was a much stronger book.
Ultimately, this was a disappointment because I thought the conclusion was actually pretty creative but it got lost in so many problems with the book. When I read (skimmed) the author's afterword, I wasn't convinced he managed to effectively expose his themes in the book. Being a stay-at-home dad, for instance, isn't quite the weird thing he seems to think it is. And the exploration of introverted people was not really fully realized. I think the book was a just a little too ambitious for this author.
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