Review: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

 

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: YA Fiction

Pages: 288

Publication Date: August, 2013

Rating: 1/5

Summary:

            The story takes place on Leonard Peacock’s birthday. He decides to take his grandfather’s P-38 pistol to his high school with him. His goal is to kill his former best friend and then himself. Before he does this, he must say goodbye to four important people in his life. His old neighbor, Walt; a classmate who would play violin for Leonard, Baback; the homeschooled evangelist that Leonard had a crush on, Lauren; and his history teacher, Herr Silverman. The novel follows Leonard throughout this disturbing day.

Pros:

·       The story is set in Philadelphia, which was interesting to me as I am live in the city.

·       The last 60 pages were kind of interesting.

Cons:

·       The whole story was honestly pretty boring. I have read other YA novels with similar plots that held my attention. Perhaps the constant use of lengthy footnotes made it hard for me to get into the story.

·       The main character is so unlikable that it was hard to feel sorry for him. I just felt annoyed and wanted him to get on with his day.

Final Thoughts:

I wanted to like this book as much as other people seemed too. I just could not get into it or feel any connection with the characters. The only reason I finished it was because it was set in Philadelphia.