The Wraith by Goodloe Byron (review)





Synopsis from Goodreads:

Itching for freedom, Linus leaves home and moves into a trailer park with some of his friends. There they are free to live as carefree wastrels. But it is not what Linus expects. His best friend Rex abruptly vanishes, his roommate John begins to surround himself with criminals and his job at the local gas station becomes increasingly unstable. At the same time Linus is haunted by his neighbor Clyde, an elderly security guard who seems to appear at any place and anytime, often spending all evening at the window watching them and peering into their lives

The Zero Dollar Tour.
Each year the author prints up an edition of ten thousand copies of a novel and then distributes them for free during road trips throughout the United States. The previous rounds have distributed twenty thousand copies of The Abstract: Tales of Wickedness and Sorrow, and then Revisions of was prepared for Mach III of the tour. The Wraith is the illustrious 'Mach IV' title.

My take on this book:
I won this book from Goodreads first read program and want to than Goodloe Byron for sending me a copy of this book!
This story is told thru the eyes of Linus, he is a young man who has been living at home with his parents, he decides to house sit, or in this case trailer sit for his friend John and while doing so decides he will move in with John. It becomes a drinking , pot smoking good time for all. There always seems to be people ready to have a good time at the trailer. In the beginning Linus loved it, but after a friend comes up missing, and his hours being cut at work, not to mention he thinks is creepy neighbor Clyde might be watching him, the lifestyle soon wears on him.

When Linus breaks into Clyde's trailer home, he finds a bag of money hidden in the sofa, when Linus takes the money and buries most of it, he seems to stop caring about work altogether, soon losing his job, but soon what he stole is stolen from him, which makes him more paranoid than ever!

This was a story about four young men, Linus wasn't even of age, drinking partying and generally having a good time. I think that  Linus must have been a stable kid before he moved into the trailer, because his former boss spoke highly of him, and overall I think he is a good kid, he just let  poor choices take his life in a bad direction. Just when he seems like he is getting his life together, he had  gotten  a job in a shoe store, and found a better living environment, another twist was thrown in that was unexpected, and an ending that left me with more questions than answers, but somehow I expected that!

Not my normal style of book, but overall I really enjoyed it, there was a great cast of characters a bit of mystery and suspense and offbeat humor. I would caution there is alot of drug and alcohol use along with some sexual situations. This book isn't for everyone but for me it was just offbeat and weird enough that I really enjoyed it!
My rating 4/5