The Brain Lair: Ed Briant

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I am NOT The Walrus by Ed Briant - Review and Giveaway

Memento Park pic courtesy Ebriant.com

Toby, Zack, and friends live and breath around the coastal town of Port Jackson, somewhere in England. How do I know it's England? They were playing Rugby and said things like "bollocks" and "blimey, mate". The Port Jackson and surrounding areas, down to the bus stations, were vividly portrayed. I could almost smell the water and really wanted to go visit. I could especially picture the walk Toby and Michelle took around the park.

Toby's borrowed his guitar from his brother Shawn, who's off in the Navy, and he needs to fix it before the show. He can't afford to have any work done so he does it himself. Finding the note inside the p-bass sets off the mystery. Should he try to find the owner of the note and risk having to return the guitar? How long has the note been in the guitar anyway? Being a stand-up lad, Toby tries to right what might have been a wrong done to someone long ago. Only things turn just a little bit scary and creepy and he wishes he hadn't bothered.

I am not the Walrus is at times charming and at times alarming. The budding relationship between Toby and Shelly is sweet and fun.
" I thought you two were getting along like a house on fire." "More like a house of pain".
I thought Toby's character was realistic and smart-alecky in a good natured way. Shelly's and Zach's characters could have used a bit more fleshing out but overall they came across as believable, too. I had a qualm with Rupert. Not so much his character as his character defect. It was unrealistic based on all his actions throughout the book - showing up in different places and the scary chase. So, that kind of marred the ending for me.

I also had a tough time with the beginning of the book. The horoscopes at the start of some of the chapters threw me off as I kept trying to figure out their significance to the rest of the chapter and wondering how they fit. They seemed like an unnecessary element. The middle of the book was solidly written. You got to know Toby and his absent brother Shawn. The story moved logically as we followed Toby's footsteps while trying to uncover the mystery of the bass. Things seemed to fall apart when Toby confronted Rupert near the end.

Overall, the story is humorous and fast-paced. Kinda like Gilmore Girls as a book. Only with boys so not as pop-culturey as it is one-linery. I would give it 3.5 copies and recommend it to the language arts teacher as a decent addition to her mystery unit. I would also give it to students who like music as you don't find many books that cover the arts for this age group. Other bonuses is it's not about sports and the kids take the bus! Too many young adult books feature characters who have cars at their disposal!

Ed Briant on right Pic courtesy Ebriant.com

About the Author
Ed Briant grew up in Brighton, England, but now lives just outside Philadelphia, where he writes, illustrates, and creates the popular comic strip "Tales from the Slush Pile." He has two daughters, teaches creative writing, and plays the alto saxophone (quite badly). Choppy Socky Blues was his first book for young adults. He can be found online at ebriant.com.

Giveaway

One copy of I Am (Not) the Walrus by Ed Briant along with a guitar pick, is up for grabs.

Just fill out the form with your name, email address, and twitter handle if you have one.

Open to US Residents only.

July 10, 2012 - July 13, 2012 11:59 pm.

One entry per person.

I am NOT the Walrus excerpt.

Check out Ed Brian't guest post where talks about a family who is all about deception.

Monday, July 9, 2012

I Am (NOT) The Walrus by Ed Briant - Guest Post

I am NOT The Walrus
Ed Briant (website)
Publisher: Flux (July 2012. 228p. $9.95. ISBN 978-0-7387-3246-6)
Source: netgalley/BlueSlip Media
Genre: Realistic (Beatles cover band)
Rating: 3.5/5
Next Tour Stop: Guys Lit Wire
Buy it: (Amazon | Indiebound)

I Am (Not) The Walrus by Ed Briant follows Toby as he tries to find the last legal owner of a p-bass fender caster guitar he is almost sure his brother stole! In the meantime, he's got just enough time for his yet unnamed cover duo (The Nowhere Men? The Sand Tigers?) to open for the Disappointed Parents, fall in deep, deep like, and stay one step ahead of the guy who wears sunglasses at night.

I'll review I Am Not The Walrus (and giveaway a copy!) on July 10, 2012 but for now Mr. Briant tells us where he got the idea for Toby's family background. A background you can't fully believe!

I used to have this friend whose family was known as “the salt mine.” All of them, the mother, father, and three sons, were so devious, that everything they said had to be taken with––at the very least––a grain of salt, or preferably with an entire salt mine.

The funny thing was, though, they weren’t bad people, but they were just into deviousness. They were into deviousness like other families were into fondues, or snorkeling. If you pay a visit to a snorkeling family any conversation will soon veer towards subjects such as how cold the ocean is this year, or which of their friends have recently been carried off by barracudas. This family was the same. They just liked being evasive, even when there was no obvious reason for being evasive.

One summer I bicycled over to their house just as they were packing up the car to go on vacation.

“Where you off to?” I asked my friend.

He shrugged, then glanced over each of his shoulders in turn. I think he was making sure his parents weren’t listening. “Um . . . France,” he said, leaning close to me. “We’re going to France.”

I got back on my bike, waved at my friend and his parents, then said, “Bon voyage!” The parents gave each other baffled looks while my friend seemed suddenly fascinated by a gap between two slabs of paving on the sidewalk.

The next time I saw him, he was nicely tanned and it was two weeks later.

“Here,” he said. “Souvenir.” He tossed me a key ring with the word Spain stamped on it. I was just about to say I thought you were going to France, but I stopped myself.

What would be the point? It was just the way he was.

Ed Briant

We stayed good friends until a year later when he joined the army, and we lost touch. I heard through the grapevine that he’d ended up in Military Intelligence, which is a nice finish to the story. Now he can be as devious as he likes with the Russians, or the Iranians, or whoever we aren’t on good terms with at any given moment.

I suppose Toby’s family is a bit like that, especially his mom and his older brother. It’s not so much that they’re going to tell you blatant lies. It’s just that whatever they do tell you will be slightly off to one side of the truth.

For Toby’s friend, Zack it’s no big deal. He knows Toby and his family, and adjusts his expectations accordingly. For Toby himself, though, it is more of a problem. He’s on the rebound after being chucked by his girlfriend Katrina, and one of the reasons she gives for dumping him is that he’s dishonest. Toby, being a conscientious kind of bloke, takes this to heart and resolves to become meticulously honest from here on in.

But Toby’s resolve is put to the test when he encounters Rupert. Rupert’s a psychopath, and you can’t really tell a psychopath where you live, no matter how nicely he asks you, and Rupert doesn’t even ask nicely.

So, Toby has to go back to his old habits of being evasive, because who but a crazy person wouldn’t be evasive when a psychopath asks you where you live?

Toby’s older brother Shawn has a different kind of dishonesty. He’s a thief, and thieving requires a certain amount of dishonesty, but he’s never more dishonest that he absolutely needs to be. He assumes everyone knows that he’s a thief, so he’s evasive about where his goods come from in order to protect his clients in the event that someone gets curious.

Toby’s mom, on the other hand, is an expert at deviousness. She skirts the truth about Shawn to protect Toby, but really, isn’t her deviousness more to protect Shawn? Take a look at the scenes between Toby and his mom. It seems like it’s beyond her capabilities to give Toby a straight answer about anything. She lies to him, and then pretends the lie is a joke. He can’t phone her at work. She can’t even give him the long-distance code when he tries to make a call to a neighboring town.

Toby’s mom is without a doubt a virtuoso among salt-miners.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for a REVIEW and GIVEAWAY. One copy of the book along with a guitar pic will be up for grabs! Open to US Only!