james_desantis's profile picture

james_desantis 's review for:

The New York Four by Brian Wood
3.0

Brian Wood has been a writer I went from not really enjoying to loving most of his work. Then I heard about this, by the same team that did "Local" and I HAD to check it out.

So this is about four girls first year in college. However, it's mostly focused on just one girl, Riley, and her quest to break out into the real world. When she meets these four friends, they all work at the same place, and they KIND of become buddies but the real story is Riley and her obsession with her phone, texting, and then meeting a guy. This all comes to a twisty twist that you probably can see coming.

Good: I liked Riley and most of the other girls. Sure, a little one-dimensional but they all had their own quirks to make them interesting. I thought the pacing was solid and was never really bored throughout. The twist was pretty creepy and the ending shot even more so.

Bad: It's kind of a slice of life story but without any big "oh whoa" moments. It's on the edge of being kind of boring at times. I also thought the sister was a little "crazy" for the sake of it.

Overall a fun little story that I think could have been stronger. Better for younger teens, they will enjoy it, but Local is a much more powerful story IMO. A 3 out of 5 for this one.