Ravings of a Book Junkie

John Wayne Cleaver is 15 years old and lives with his single mom in an upstairs apartment above a mortuary. Diagnosed by his therapist with antisocial personality disorder Cleaver isn't able to empathize with people and fears he will someday become like one of the serial killers he has obsessed over since he was 8 years old. To combat this, he develops a system of rules but when a monster starts killing people in his town he soon realizes he'll have to spring his own inner demon loose to save them. This book is outstanding. The main character JWC tries hard to fight his natural inclinations and the author portrays this very well. His relationship with his mother is both sad and scary, to me, it's there that his lack of gentle feelings was the most obvious. I felt such sympathy for her, to have a child like him would be horrendous! The only complaint I have concerns the development of the villain, that there was no deeper look into where he'd come from and so on. But, still, this is definitely a book I'd recommend. Grade: A