One thing you can always count on when you read something by Stuart R. West is a good laugh. He has such a firm grasp on the awkwardness and life-or-death embarrassments of being a teenager in high school. I know what I’m talking about. As a teacher I have been laughing at teenage troubles for 31 years now. Tex, Olivia, Elspeth, and the gang are so realistic that I could name the kids in real life they correspond to… well, except maybe for the witch thing… and the ghost thing… and the opening the gateway to Hell thing… Oy! Two things you can always count on when you read something by Stuart is a good laugh and some utterly creepy and scary supernatural hoodoo. Yes, ghosts in the boys’ restroom… undead possession of teenage female souls… sleep spells that can save your life and electrical spells that can blow out the lights in the whole city… there’s a real creep-a-thon going on here. And there’s a little thing about an unsolved murder… Oy! Oy! Oy! Okay, Three things you can always count on when you read something by Stuart…! Yeah, there’s the whodunit factor too. I used to be pretty clever at reading Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie… I knew the solution to the mystery nine times out of… well, a thousand. But Stuart always fools me. I didn’t get this one, and I’m betting you won’t either. So… now, wait a minute! Is it four things? Five? I’m going math-challenged here! Anyway, if you know anything about good books, you will like this book, second installment in the trilogy, at least as much as I did.
This is a review of Stuart R. West’s book Tex, and the Gangs of Suburbia, available at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Tex%2C+and+the+Gangs+of+Suburbia).
You should definitely give it a look.
Catch a Falling Star 