G1210 Book Review of Copy Boy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Name of Book: Copy Boy
 
Author: Shelley Blanton-Stroud

ISBN: 978-1-63152-697-8

Publisher: She writes press

Type of book: California, past, twins, survival, travel, newspaper, 1930s, Great Depression, mysteries, secrets 

Year it was published: 2020

Summary:

Jane’s a very brave boy. And a very difficult girl. She’ll become a remarkable woman, an icon of her century, but that’s a long way off. Not my fault, she thinks, dropping a bloody crowbar in the irrigation ditch after Daddy. She steals Momma’s Ford and escapes to Depression-era San Francisco, where she fakes her way into work as a newspaper copy boy. Everything’s looking up. She’s climbing the ladder at the paper, winning validation, skill, and connections with the artists and thinkers of her day. But then Daddy reappears on the paper’s front page, his arm around a girl who’s just been beaten into a coma one block from Jane’s newspaper―hit in the head with a crowbar. Jane’s got to find Daddy before he finds her, and before everyone else finds her out. She’s got to protect her invented identity. This is what she thinks she wants. It’s definitely what her dead brother wants.

Characters:

Main character is Jane/Benny Hopper, a cross-dressing young woman who has often been confused with being a boy. Jane's background is definitely interesting, in that she was born to A migrant workers family who moved away from Texas to California in 1930s in search of better times. There are other characters too such as Sweetie who becomes Jane's step sister and who has greedy ambitions of moving up. Rivka is either Sweeties friend or lover who teaches Jane to be a boy, and so forth. I also should mention that this is a romance free novel.   

Theme:

Be careful of the past

Plot:

Story was in third person narrative from Jane/Bennys point of view. It's also very gritty and it's obvious that the author has put a lot of passion and research into writing it. What I think was wrong with it is the character of Jane/Benny. I didn't really understand her, and couldn't really dig deeply into her. 

 
Author Information:


Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ B&N ~ Bookshop.org
Audible ~ Libro ~ Kobo
GooglePlay ~ Scribd ~ Chirp
Walmart Audio ~ Amazon (audiobook)
Add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She teaches college writing in Northern California and consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons.

Connect with the author:   website  ~  twitter  ~  facebook  ~ instagram ~ bookbub

Opinion:

I am not a stranger to reading books with unlikable characters nor gritty and ugly reality that's shaped by forces out of control. I was prepared to enjoy this story, namely due to the cover, and the summary also sounded pretty interesting. However, I am sad to report that I didn't like either the story nor the book. It's really hard for me to pinpoint why: maybe it's because of the main character, Jane? Maybe it's because although I read the story from cover to cover, I still wasn't able to understand what was going on and why? I don't know why. Only thing I know is that for one reason or another, I didn't like the story, not was I able to understand it. 

This is my final iRead Book Tours 

Tour Schedule:

Aug 24 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Aug 25 - Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review / giveaway
Aug 25 – fundinmental – book spotlight / giveaway
Aug 26 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book review / giveaway
Aug 27 – I'm Into Books – book spotlight / giveaway
Aug 28 – Reading Authors Network – book review / giveaway
Aug 28 - PuzzlePaws Blog - audiobook review / giveaway
Aug 31 – Sefina Hawke's Books – book spotlight
Sep 1 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book review / giveaway
Sep 2 – T's Stuff – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Sep 2 - Literary Flits – book review / giveaway
Sep 3 – She Just Loves Books – audiobook review / giveaway
Sep 4 –Pick a Good Book - book spotlight / giveaway
Sep 7 – Svetlanas reads and views – book review
Sep 8 – 100 Pages A Day – book review / giveaway
Sep 9 – Olio by Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview
Sep 9 - Olio by Marilyn – book review / giveaway
Sep 10 – Books for Books – audiobook review
Sep 11 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review / giveaway
Sep 14 – Amy's Booket List – audiobook review / giveaway
Sep 15 – Casia's Corner – book review
Sep 16 – Dab of Darkness Audiobook Reviews – audiobook review / author interview / giveaway
Sep 17 –Pen Possessed - book review / giveaway
Sep 18 - My Fictional Oasis – book review
Sep 18 - PuzzlePaws Blog - book review / giveaway

2 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)