Book Review: Still Life Las Vegas

Still Life Las Vegas

By: James Sie

★★

40% out of 100

324 Pages

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book in exchange 

for an honest-opinion review. This, however does not change my 

opinion of the book in any way, shape, or form.

Blurb:

When Walter Stahl was five-years-old, his mother drove away in the family's blue Volvo and never came back. Now seventeen, living in the dregs of Las Vegas, taking care of his ailing father and marking time in a dead-end job along the Strip, Walter's life so far has been defined by her absence. He doesn't remember what she looks like; he's never so much as seen a photograph but, still, he looks for her among the groups of tourists he runs into every day, allowing himself the dim hope that she might still be out there, somewhere. 

But when Walter meets Chrysto and Acacia, a brother and sister working as living statues at the Venetian Hotel, his world cracks wide open. With them he discovers a Las Vegas he never knew existed and, as feelings for Chrysto develop, a side of himself he never knew he had. At the same time, clues behind his mother's disappearance finally start to reveal themselves, and Walter is confronted with not only the truth about himself, but also that of his family history. 

Threading through this coming-of-age story are beautiful, heart-wrenching graphic illustration, which reveal the journey of Walter's mother Emily: how she left everything to chase a vision of Liberace across the country; and how Walter's father Owen went searching for her amongst the gondolas of the Venetian Hotel.

What I Thought:

The Blurb intrigued me, a boy looking for his long-lost mother, but Walter doesn't look for his mom, not even figuratively. This book had extremely slow pacing and was very hard to get and stay into. The writing I found to be very long winded and too detailed.  I didn't like Walter or any of the other characters except for young Emily. The chapters about young Emily were the only parts aside from a couple of the comic portions that I actually enjoyed. I liked the musical comic chapters in this book. They felt so magical and unreal. The drawing style was amazing and very unique. The story felt flat to me and I also felt that there was no general point to it. The characters were not relatable or interesting.  The plot was very slow and was not keeping my attention to well. 

Summary of my review:

I would not personally recommend this to you. If the blurb intrigues you and you normally read this genre, go for it, you might like it. I personally didn't like this and almost everything felt flat to me.