It was fun, a quick and easy read. Maybe too quick and easy. I felt like something was missing while I read it.
Now that I've had some time to think about it, I realize a lot of things bother me about this book. First and foremost, the relationship between Zack's parents, and Zack and his parents. They met in high school, she got pregnant and the he died one year after Zack was born. Now, 18 years later, Zack's mother is still pining away for her dead high school lover, and it's made out to be this great and tragic love story... but I don't buy it, at all.
Also, Zack's obsession with his father is weird. This is a man who has never been a part of Zack's life, and yet he still feels this deep connection with him... I don't buy that either.
Secondly, the characters are flimsy, some of them are straight up wish-fulfillment/ gamer fantasy personified and the dialogue is stilted and choppy, because Cline feels an incessant need to jam in popcultural references every which way. It gets real tiresome, real fast.
These things have to come naturally to be good, but Cline seems to insist on putting the square brick in the triangular slot.
The plot is very anticlimactic.
I'm starting to wonder if dear old Cline is a one trick-pony...