Infinite Joe

Although this book is over 500 pages, I found it to be a quick moving, extremely well structured book about the power of words, and the effects that they can have when wielded by both the best and worst of humanity. The characters felt real and well thought out, and the story was great from beginning to end.

There are a few things, however, that prevented me from giving this book 5 stars:

- Death as the narrator. I would be engrossed in the story, and things would be flowing nicely, and then would come a part where it was obvious that Death was telling the story, and I found myself rolling my eyes. It just felt hokey to me, and detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book.

- Epilogue. Although this particular one fit well enough, I hate epilogues.

- Some of the descriptions. I felt that some of the descriptions, similies and metaphors that were used were forced, and even a little chuckle-worthy. My favorite was "wooden tears". It felt as if the author wrote things at times for the sake of sounding artsy.

In spite of these shortcomings, the book was powerful enough to be a solid 4+ stars. I really enjoyed reading it.