This story starts out on the commuter train, the main character Brick takes this commuter train everyday to work. The story is told from Brick pov in a series of flash backs that begin with his childhood, unsuccessful forays in the dating scene and follows him through his life in the military on his quest to be more than mediocre.
I will be honest I went back and forth with this book, there were times were I was full of understanding and sympathy for the young boy and at other times frustrated with what seemed like a huge self esteem issue that has followed him through life, and made it seem like he just couldn't catch a break. There were characters I loved and loathed, and thou it took me a while to get through this book, at times I found it a little dry for my taste; with that said I have also been working ridiculous hours at my "real job" and might have just been too tired to really appreciate some of the parts I was reading at that point in time. Over all I thought it was well written and flowed well and never as a reader did I feel out of the loop when the author was describing military terminology or exercises. The author is very direct writing from the male perspective so there is no overly powerful flowery writing, which I will admit as a reader is a nice change. I think the author did a great job getting us into the lead characters head and understanding his life and emotions and why he is the way he is.
I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5 star rating
I was gifted a copy of this book by the author in exchange for a unbiased review.