Blank Confession

Blank Confessions by Pete Hautman was based off of a mysterious boy named Shayne that moves to a town and enrolls at the local high school and makes friends with Mikey, a small, fragile boy who is picked on by Jon Brande, his sister’s boyfriend. Blank Confession has interesting characters that form a great storyline. The story line is told in the view of three people and is very smooth and easy to follow. This is the best book I have ever read by far. To start off, Blank Confessions provides a broad spectrum of interesting characters that you somehow become emotionally attached to throughout the story. This added to the addictiveness of the story. As a new kid in 6th grade, I felt as lonely and confused as Mikey did in high school. He was small and underdeveloped as I was and had very little friends. This allowed me to relate to him very easily at the beginning of the story, making me more addicted to Blank Confessions. Emotionally, I felt the pain Mikey had as he sat at lunch by himself and slipped through the halls without anyone noticing he was there. Mikey and I are very much alike. In addition, Mikey’s sister, Marie, reminded me of my own sister and how she always ends up falling into the trap of a male companion that is not suitable for any female to have. Marie is dating Jon, who bullies Mikey, just as my sister’s previous boyfriends have done. The similarities given between myself and Mikey and my sister and Marie made the book fun to read because it was close to how my life is. The emotional attachment Blank Confession includes in the reading keeps you flipping pages and wanting more.

To add, Blank Confessions provides a vivid and smoothly written story line that is easy to keep up with and told by multiple people, making the book a fantastic read. Throughout the book, the book switches from chapter to chapter with the view of how the story took place in the eyes of three people, Mikey, Detective Rowls, and Shayne. When one person speaks about what Jon did at school that day, another person also gives their account of what Jon did and how it affected them. The transition from the differing views are easy to follow and hard to lose track of. The book gives you the view point of Mikey and Shayne during the fight between Shayne and Trey, a friend of Jon and a football player. Shayne explains that he did a move on Trey that stunned Trey while Mikey explains that the move that was executed on Trey was crazy and very unpredictable. The addition of this form of literature to the already strong character attachment allows the reader to see what the story was like in the eyes of different people who thought of the situation in contrasting point of views.

In sum, Blank Confessions by Pete Hautman is a very enjoyable book and is a must read for any young adult that is interested in books that are hard to put down and simple to read. The emotional attachment to characters and strong, interesting, and descriptive story line make this book one of the best of the year. This book is easy to relate to and fun to read.