I found myself skipping nearly entire chapters trying to get to the end of this story to see if it was going to end the way I thought it would (it did). The middle 50% was essentially the same scene over and over, and I just found it dull and unnecessarily long.

I found the author's "voice" annoying - maybe best described as a lack of maturity? At any rate, I was rolling my eyes through the entire dinner scene with his mother. (Minor spoiler ahead!) It felt petulant and made no logical sense. I would guess most atheists, as our hero describes himself, would not *also* buy Ouija boards to talk to potential ghosts.

One last beef - I was distracted by the constant references to online gaming, shopping at Best Buy and Cub Foods - it drove me nuts and pulled me out of the story every time he did it. I felt the writing was tighter (and better) in the last 25% of the book. Overall, it felt like a NaNoWriMo attempt that needed to be heavily edited and shortened. ( )

We know from the beginning of this book that five year old Alex was kidnapped and later murdered. We know who did it as well, because he died during the same event. Six months later Alex's parents are separated and his father, Ian Colmes, is still living in the family home. Ian grieves for his son constantly, but suddenly he's started hallucinating that Alex is in the house with him. He can't sleep, he's in danger of losing his job, and he wonders if he's going mad. The book primarily focuses on how Ian is coping with the Alex appearances. Not only does he see Alex, he engages in conversations with him too. Ian wonders if he is somehow to blame for Alex's death and that's why Alex has returned to torment him.

Alex is one of those stories I thought twice about reading. I hate books that deal with dead children. It's just too painful a subject for most people, especially parents. I thought portions of the book dragged on too long with quite a bit of repetition in the hallucinations. However, I was hooked from the beginning and read this book straight through in one sitting. I was never sure if Ian was crazy or how it would end. The author did a great job of portraying Ian's feelings of failure and loss, with a satisfying and surprising ending I never saw coming.
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We know from the beginning of this book that five year old Alex was kidnapped and later murdered. We know who did it as well, because he died during the same event. Six months later Alex's parents are separated and his father, Ian Colmes, is still living in the family home. Ian grieves for his son constantly, but suddenly he's started hallucinating that Alex is in the house with him. He can't sleep, he's in danger of losing his job, and he wonders if he's going mad. The book primarily focuses on how Ian is coping with the Alex appearances. Not only does he see Alex, he engages in conversations with him too. Ian wonders if he is somehow to blame for Alex's death and that's why Alex has returned to torment him.

Alex is one of those stories I thought twice about reading. I hate books that deal with dead children. It's just too painful a subject for most people, especially parents. I thought portions of the book dragged on too long with quite a bit of repetition in the hallucinations. However, I was hooked from the beginning and read this book straight through in one sitting. I was never sure if Ian was crazy or how it would end. The author did a great job of portraying Ian's feelings of failure and loss, with a satisfying and surprising ending I never saw coming. ( )

A tale of grief and how a family can recover from it. How trust must and can be rebuilt and the steps necessary to go forward. The supernatural steps in to help Ian fulfill his son. Sad. ( )

3.5 stars.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but the pace keeps you turning pages quickly. You can read this in 3-4 hours. It's perfect for a flight, a train ride, or a rainy afternoon. And you care enough about Ian, Alex, & Alina that you want them to have the best happy ending that they can. The author accomplishes all this. I would read another book by him happily.

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