'Random Acts of Senseless Violence' by Jack Womack

On the one hand, this novel is a very impressive achievement, an extremely believable tale of a family descending into poverty as society collapses, told as 6 months of diary entries written by a 12-year old girl. The way the language shifts over the course of the novel is incredibly, masterfully done - from plain and simple English written by a girl doing well at school and living in a nice area, to paragraphs of street slang written by a girl struggling to get by as her life collapses.

On the other hand, this is an extremely believable tale of a family descending into poverty as society collapses. It's not a fun book; it's so bleak. I can appreciate it as a technical and imaginative achievement but I can't really say I enjoyed reading it, especially in the current political climate.

Bit too real.