Some of Tim's Stories

"This could have been a five-star novel—an exceptional five-star novel, even. That’s why I’m so ridiculously disappointed in the execution. Hinton had the bones of something incredible here. But instead of building it out, she left it as bare bones, published it, and called it done. There’s real beauty in short stories, and I genuinely believe the stories in this collection are expertly written. But as readers, we need more. Hinton has said in interviews that she doesn’t write for other people—and that’s great, artistic integrity and all—but this felt like she had a treasure chest full of gold and only gave us a few coins. She could have made this a full-length novel, even in the unique, fragmented style she used here. But she didn’t. And honestly, I think that was a huge mistake. The word I keep trying not to use is “lazy,” because I really don’t believe this was a product of laziness. It feels more like a swing and a miss in an attempt to be a little too original. I also didn’t understand the artistic choice to tell the story from Tim’s perspective rather than just focusing on Mike and Terry. For the entire collection, I thought Terry was the bartender! It puts a lot of pressure on the reader to figure out what’s going on without enough context or clarity. I finished the collection completely confused and only got clarity because I also read Hinton’s interviews about it. And that leads me to the interviews… man. There’s more interview content in this book than actual storytelling. You can’t market a book like this—as if it’s a cohesive narrative—and then deliver a bulk of bonus material aimed more at superfans. It rubs me the wrong way. Sure, the interviews are fine. You get some fun facts to share with fellow S.E. Hinton fans, and it’s interesting to get a glimpse into her process and reflections on her earlier works and their adaptations. But 1) they get repetitive, and (Full review on Goodreads, Ambrose Malles) ((Cutoff due to character limit))"