Is it safe to respect your childrens privacy? another fairly typical Harlan Coben novel (Hold Tight - Harlan Coben)

Member Name: IzzyS

Product:	Hold Tight - Harlan Coben
Date:	21/07/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fairly intriguing, its easy enough to read (not difficult to follow story-wise ), makes you think

Disadvantages: Too similar to his other novels, the mix of cheese and graphic scenes, the ending to some extent

- Introduction -

My mum presented me with this book a few days before I left with my parents on our summer holiday abroad. She told me she'd been given it for free through a book club at work and wondered if I'd like to read it. I was a little hesitant since I had read a couple of the authors' other novels based around a specific character before and wasn't overly keen on them but I read that it was a stand alone novel not about that character and I knew I liked a good crime novel, so I thought I can't complain when it doesn't cost me anything, so I gave it a shot and read it while on holiday.


- Story -

'Hold Tight' tells the story of a few families but the main story involves Tia and Mike Baye, parents in New Jersey who decide to spy on their sixteen year old son, Adam, through his computer because their worried when he becomes very withdrawn after the suicide of his school friend. Mike isn't keen on spying on him but his wife is sure its the right thing to do and its not long before they read an email that spells that somethings wrong and soon after Adam seems to completely disappear. Whats happened to him? is there more to what went on than meets the eye? does spying on your child cause more harm than good? you'll have to read the novel to find out.


- Thoughts & Opinions -

I've already read a couple of Harlans other novels, Deal Breaker and Tell No-One, which star his re-occuring character Myron Bolitar but this is the first stand alone novel of his that I've read. If you've read any of his novels before, either a Myron Bolitar one or not, you'll more likely than not spot some similarities in terms of how the plot develops and the type of characters involved almost, like a father figure with a close buddy who has a somewhat macho image and their friends and neighbours and there's the other seemingly unrelated sub plots that run alongside the main story, (which is probably the case for other crime novels) anyway I just notice that his stories always have that certain sameness to them.

If youre quite clever and like to second guess the outcome of such novels, I wouldn't think it'd be too difficult to guess some of the twists in this novel, though maybe not the full story. I was able to guess some things that I was right about but some of it also took me by surprise. However, I have to say that I find his novels have an almost annoying mix of cheesiness with some of the descriptions and dialogue and the way some loose ends are tied up as well as more gory, graphic aspects/descriptions given when the reader is taken through the more violent crimes, which some might find a little over the top or otherwise distasteful, its the combination of those two aspects that irk me. The endings of his novels have tended to let me down a bit too and its the same with this novel, though in one way its nice to have near everything explained but the way its written is perhaps not to everyones taste, this time I felt the book ended quite abruptly, so again it reminded me of the other books of his I'd read before, in previous years, if you've read any of his other novels you may be able to guess the outcome to some extent. However, on the more positive side, I did manage to finish the book, I didn't give up mid way through as such, I thought the characters were interesting enough to make me keep on reading and find out the outcome ie what happened to them, what their past/back story was.

Its a fairly light read, I wouldn't say you need your thinking cap on at all times to fully follow it but it does have enough sub plots to, as I say, just keep your interest and keep you reading on. Its 432 pages in length (with an extract from another novel taking up an extra 8 pages at the back) and I managed to read it in four days but I only spent about a maximum of two or three hours a day reading it (I only tend to read one or two novels a year when im away on holiday or if there's one published that I know specifically interests me, or non-fiction books), so im not a big reader (at home I spend most of my time online or watching TV, I know, shame on me!), hence you might well be able to read it quicker than me, that probably varies but anyway im just trying to say that its not a majorly long read and its fairly diverting.

It does also have somewhat of a moral side to it, making you question what would you do in Mike's shoes? is it right to spy on your kids, or, say, friends maybe, if you think of it as protecting them? is that ok, your responsibility even and there are murmors of other moral stories in a sense built into it, given what happens to some of the characters, though it is a bit too 'Americanised' perhaps even for my liking. There is one sub-plot that never really gets resolved now that I think of it and thats a bit annoying, your left not knowing what the outcome was for one particular family, which, for a stand alone novel, isn't so good.


- Conclusions -

Hold Tight is another novel thats similar to the authors' other novels, the only main difference being that this is one of his first stand alone novels, not starring his usual character, Myron Bolitar.

Its not a very demanding read and it is intriguing enough to keep you reading (or it was for me anyway) though its annoyingly both cheesy and graphic at different points. If you like his other novels then you should find this a good enough read, the fact that I stuck with it and bothered to read it at night once or twice shows that it did interest me and I was fairly intrigued by it, so its not too bad but I don't think I would specifically recommend it, unless you already like the authors wother work perhaps. Its ok but its rather American and like I say the cheesy dialogue at points and to some extent the ending left me feeling this wasn't anything other than a fairly run of the mill American crime fiction novel, so im giving this 3 stars out of 5, though it did make me think about the whole privacy issue, that I actually found more interesting as a sort of discussion point, even though im not a parent, it made me think, so it is good from that point of view. Ack 3 or 4 stars out of 5? hmmm if there were a half point system I would probably give it the benefit of the doubt so to speak and notch it up to 3.5 stars because of that, if that makes any sense!

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you found it useful and thanks for any and all r/r/c's. This review may be posted on Ciao UK, if I can find it listed there or if they add it as a product suggestion.

Summary: Another fairly predictable Harlan Coben novel, this time a stand alone novel