Trevor's Song

A Rock Novel Worth Reading

Trevor’s Song managed to take me completely by surprise. Trevor himself was the biggest surprise, being one of the most dysfunctional leads I’ve seen in a book in a long, long time. In the beginning, I didn’t even like him. He wasn’t what you might call a sympathetic character. But by the time I was halfway through the book, I was ready to shank anyone who so much as looked at him sideways. It was very interesting to watch his character grow and change (even if I sometimes wanted to smack some sense into him).

The characters, dialogue, and storyline are all above average, and Gottfried writes in a smooth, straightforward style. Even the minor characters have quirks and traits that make them stand out, and the major characters are fleshed out fairly well. The dialogue is believable (and often amusing), and the storylines are all compelling enough to keep you reading.

My complaints about this book are very minor ones. One was the way the backstory was handled. Fans who were introduced to the characters through Gottfried’s blog might not have the same issues as I did, but I felt like a little more explication would have been nice in places. I was glad, though, that Trevor’s entire backstory wasn’t hurled at the reader in one fell swoop. However, I felt a little loss now and again in the first quarter or so of the book. Another thing that added to that ‘being lost’ feeling in the early part of the book was the lack of anything to mark the passage of time. I didn’t notice any reference to the month or seasons or anything, but it’s obvious quite a bit of time passes in relatively few pages. This was a little confusing, but not enough to distract from the story. The last ‘negative’ about this book is that it could use another round of proofreading. I believe that almost every book has at least a few typographical errors, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there are a number in this book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a lot. Much more, in fact, than I thought I would when I first began reading it. It was a sometimes fun, sometimes heartbreaking story set against an irresistible backdrop of rock and roll and one of the better indie books I’ve read.