White Picket Prisons

White Picket Prisons by Phil Taylor
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The author is an acquaintance who asked me to review his book. If he hadn't asked me, I would have never wasted two weeks on something that obviously needs an author and an editor. There are so many things wrong with this "book" I don't even know where to start but for the benefit of the author, I'll try. There are serious POV issues within the sections. For example, in one section the story changes POV from first person character (Cooper) to third person secondary character (Chuck) which is fine until the POV cuts to first person all for the benefit of a not-so-witty commentary before flipping back to third person again. And then there's the tense - as in the story doesn't know if it's being told past tense or present tense as it seems to do alot of both depending if the author wants to impart a bit of foreshadowing or not. Poor grammar, weak jokes mostly based on homosexuality (which are not funny), sloppy writing, lazy characterizations, and a thin plot round out this book as a loser. The author's writing may be cute on his blog, but in novel format falls far short of being funny or readworthy. Don't waste your time on this self-published book, it's definitely not going anywhere.

Summary: Gooby, Chuck, Cliff and Cooper return to their old neighborhood for a funeral. For the first time they see the idyllic neighborhood of their childhood through the eyes of adults and what they discover challenges everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. Our heroes are the guys next door, grown ups by day but the same stupid kids when they're together, humorously meeting adulthood and a murder mystery head on. The questions is not will they survive the bad guys, but will they survive each other?