Concept: What if a reporter in a small town started to dig up the past of a town hero? What if the hero had done something terrible? What if the town people didn't want to dredge up the sordid past? This concept was good enough to keep me interested, but no more.
Theme: One theme was being honest with yourself and not running from the truth, although more could have been made out of it in the resolution.
Structure: The basic structure of set-up, response, attack and resolution was followed, but not rigorously. The ending tried to tie together several minor details in the story as part of the big picture, but it was unnecessary. Some of the details didn't need to be tied to anything, but trying to make them fit with the main story just begged plausibility.
Character: This is the book's strongest element. We get to know well not only the hero, but several other characters even though the book is written in first person. I think the key here is that we get the motivations of the other characters and enough of their background so we care about them.
Writing Voice: This element is also well done. There are several hockey scenes that I thought would be boring play-by-play action scenes, but they aren't. Gruley makes the scenes part of the dramatic nature of the story in that we are learning something about the characters. We are also hearing what the hero is thinking throughout them which puts the action in context and makes us care about it beyond just the results of the game.
Scene Construction: This element is well done too. The scenes get quickly to the point and they reveal one more piece of information to move the story along.
Overall, Starvation Lake was well-written. My main complaint is that the concept wasn't higher. It's so hard to find a book that has a high concept that is also executed well.
Interesting perspective, Sean. Thanks for the thoughtful read.
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