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Gut Instinct Rating - 3.5
Story Line - 3.5
Writing Style - 3.5
Characters - 4.5
Excitement Factor - 3.5
Believability for type and topics - 5
Similarity to other books - 4
Cover art- 4; Dust jacket Art - 4
Title Relevance - 5

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.97. I think it was more deserving of a 4.15.

When Diego gets in a fight and the parents press charges, Diego finds himself with Mr. Virdas, a probation offer, who he thinks might be able to help him turn his life around.

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:

Therapy
Crime
Sexual Assault

Overall, this book was just kind of average. I mean, it was really predictable what was going to happen, which made it less appealing. I wouldn't have given this over a 3.5 if it wasn't for breaking down each component of a book. (Excuse the short review, but it was just "meh," the whole time.)

The characters were basic. I was slightly annoyed that the characters all appeared to be Hispanic because for me, it made it seem as if we were profiling the Hispanic community. Now, maybe that's a far fetched statement, but I just watched something a few weeks ago about how the Hispanic students were always getting in fights with other non-Hispanic students and the only ones getting in trouble were the Hispanics... so my mind kind of went back to this situation. However, the characters mostly showed progress, which is something I enjoy seeing.
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Although, the book was hinted at taking 6 months... I didn't really feel like we covered that much ground. Most people's probation isn't flexible. It's x-amount of time for x-amount of crime. So I felt kind of cheated, especially at the end when everything just happened to fall into place. Because of these things, the writing style was an issue for me. The story itself is believable. But the way in which it was written (definitely a young-young adult read), I just kind of felt like I knew what the next major point of the book was. The story was just fine - nothing spectacular. The beginning hints at so much of what Diego experiences, that it wasn't real exciting for me. Sure, there were moments were things heated up, but it was mostly luke-warm.

The title was probably my favorite thing the author pulled from the story line. It was representative of at least 2 themes in the novel, but I suppose there could be more if you really did some analysis. The dust jacket artwork was okay - a fishing hook in some deep blue water; nothing spectaculr, but it fit well with the book's story line. The hardcover itself was just a dark/light blue spine and cover with nothing emphasized.

In general, I feel really "meh" about this book. It wasn't great by any means, but it wasn't horrible either. It simply existed.

It was quick to finish. I started and finished it in a matter of two weeks over a Christmas break.

Just finished this book and it's another good one from Alex Sanchez. Diego has anger issues and after an assault charge he gets probation and has to meet with his officer, Mr. Vidas, once a week. And it is with the help of Mr. Vidas that he starts to face the root cause of his anger. Good book with believable characters (though I wanted smack Diego's mother a time or two).

I really liked this book, especially it's dark themes and heavy subject matter. It really helped me with my own past. However, I would have liked to see more character developement and character description. Great LGBT novel, none the less.