BACK ROADS by Tawni O'Dell ***

Mom killed dad-or so it goes in the beginning. 18 yo boy volunteers to work 2 jobs to support the other 3 or 4 siblings all female, ages 6-16. The 16yo female fucks everything in pants and protag Harley is a virgin.

I'm on the fence. It's well written, interesting, I'm not overwhelmed with characters. I do want to continue on, nothing holds me back. There are things I don't like about it but that's personal taste. The fly cover describes the protag as having endearing humor, love for his sisters. Where I see cold, calculating with lust for his sister. He reminds me of a cold blooded snake, his personality hiding underground and slithering out now and then. I also do not find him "utterly endearing" as the cover says. I don't like the cold bastard at all-pg 113 "thought about grabbing the back of her neck and smashing her face into the glass." In some respects she writes him as an intelligent, well read near-adult, in other respects he comes across as hot tempered and stupid; contradictory. So I'm confused. This kid, from what I read, has no heart. No compassion, no courage, no empathy.

He's having sex with a 33 yo mom-neighbor and only thought in his head is coming. "If she had been a board she'd have cracked down the middle." He's stupid. And he sees old graves marked "Baby" with no name....wondering how a baby can die nameless...does that sound like the rest of his lunacy? One minute he's so concerned about unborn fetus names the next he's wanting to smash people or thinking of his screw partner as an object, or a rotten peach. She's an object and a fetus isn't? Contradictions up the yin yang.

Daddy was an abusing father and I'm not sure at this point who really killed him but due to Harley's desire to punch, gouge, smash faces into windshields I'd say his propensity for violence is right up there with pop. There are " a series of staggering surprises" so I'm waiting for that. .......waiting......waiting.....and here it is...daddy was after one of the daughters! No duh.

Geez I don't know maybe I'm 'reading' it all wrong and there's lots of things to ooh and ahh about...ask Oprah she read it. There's nothing wrong with the writing/punctuation/tenses etc but the characters are 'out there'.