Smoke

For a book with such a richly imagined setting and premise, Smoke's plot and characters fell completely flat. There was not a single character who did not seem like they had been pulled from a catalogue of hackneyed person-types (the tormented antihero, the rebellious daughter, the heart-of-gold best friend, the vicious bully, the aged extremist, etc., etc.) and the plot felt as formulaic as a children's cartoon (two best friends + the love interest + somebody out to get them = some chase scenes and a mystery to be solved).

It always makes me sad when something so ambitious fails to fulfill itself.

Thank you to HarperCollins for the advance reading copy.