The East End: A Novel

The East End is a little out of the norm for me, but the blurb piqued my interest so here I am. The thing is I still don't know exactly what it was about the story that kept me turning those pages. It's not really what I would consider a thriller - things happen but not anything that would keep me on the edge of my seat. In that same vein, it's not a romance, and while there is some level of suspense, it's certainly not a mystery either. Then we have the characters who aren't particularly likable, some less so than others, but our main players do inspire at the least some level of empathy. At its core, the story is one of the haves and have nots along with those who ride the middle, not really part of either world. While we do see the vast differences in social class, the author doesn't get preachy, and we also see that everything isn't always so cut and dried - money doesn't always mean security, and the secrets a person hides, the regrets they have, and the lives they live don't necessarily have anything to do with economics. The story runs at a fairly steady pace for most of the book with a ramp up toward the end, and the one constant for me from early on was the thought that this would make a movie that I would watch. That's a rarity for me as I tend to lean toward books over movies, but this one could easily make the cross over to the big screen. As I said at the beginning, I still don't know exactly what it was about The East End that kept me interested, but it certainly did. Jason Allen definitely knows how to weave a tale and I will be watching for whatever he does next.

One of the best books I have read.