My book review: A Fine Dark Line, by Joe Lansdale (2003)

Hello, your friendly librarian here, with my review of this book.  We had acquired this as a donation, which is why I’m reviewing it now.

The story is set in 1958 Texas, where a family of 4 buys a drive-in. This is kind of a coming of age story about a 13 year old boy who comes across a box of old letters. As he reads through these letters, he uncovers a murder mystery of a couple of girls.  While he tries to solve this mystery, he learns a lot as he grows up. I won’t give any spoilers here.

My take on this book is that it’s an awesome story, it drew me in from cover to cover, I was that engrossed. But then again, I’m into historical fiction right now, especially into the time period of the 50s-the 90s. I actually learned a lot myself, like I did not know just how bad some of the stuff that was going on with race, gender, etc. I learned that things back then we’re not always perfect, and that we tend to idealize things as they were.

I give this book a 5 star rating, just because it portrayed honesty, and I do love a good coming of age story.  This is a recommended summer read.