The shadows

It’s been quite fun reading Daniel Chacons novel. It really made me connect with the characters. I often found myself wondering what was going to happen next, and times when I had to sit the book down for something else I almost couldn’t wait to get back to it. This was causing me to ask questions such as: Why did Joey join a gang? Or Why did he stop acting? It’s questions like these that kept me coming back to this book with interest.

The dysfunctional Molina family is broken apart in ways that are unforeseen at the beginning of the book. I expected something extreme to happen by the end of the book, but was surprised with the events that led up to it. Events such as how Joey’s girlfriend Amy was raped by William or Joey’s great fall in last chapters. I think Joey started his final fall when he last broke his promise to Leah and instead went with Karla. I mean after that it was at a point where you could see it coming; his acting was taking over the actor. It’s very obvious that William is a bad, but is Rachel a good mother? I mean she sure liked guiding him and trying to show him the path she thought was right, but could she have done more. It’s like when she finally gave up on Joey, she could have tried to at least force him to go with her or just stay somewhere else there with him so he could finish his play.

Out of the family I think my favorite character was Billy. Billy didn’t have everything going for him, and he didn’t have all the talent that Joey had and he wasn’t destroyed like Joey was mentally. Billy hardly came home and he was always careful not to be around William. Billy was always steadily making his escape plan, or at least that’s what I believe he was doing. He was on good terms with his girlfriend’s family and stuff like that.

The smartest kid in the family had to of been Vero. She was the one who got out, and although she isn’t talked about much after the rest of the family leaves, she somehow made it without them. That right there I think is enough to show that she’s the smartest, she had nothing and yet still made it. She most likely stayed with family or friends for a while, but the fact that she was able to get out from under the hold of William is amazing. She saw her chance and took it.

Rachel and William was a confusing couple, because at times William seemed half normal, maybe even nice. For the most part William was just being his normal self staying alone in the garage and making his demented heads. Rachel on the other was more outgoing to the family and she was very nice to them. She loved to play piano, but she seemed possessed when she did play especially late at night.

Overall I liked this novel. I think it was a good well paced and interesting book.