"Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover"

By Eric L. (AKA This is a Review, Not a Critical Essay)

Click is a novel written by ten writers, who describe what happens when two children inherit their recently deceased grandfather's camera memorabilia. The novel proceeds to take the reader through ten different chapters (I assume each author wrote), in perspective of multiple different people their grandfather met during his famous photography career.

I chose this novel because the idea of multiple authors coming together to tell a story really caught my eye. Little did I know, that would be a bad lure to pick it up. The book is only 217 pages long and I have to wonder why it took ten writers to write it. If each author got their own chapter in this book, why were they only capable of writing 20 pages (per chapter) worth of information? It is as though they did not need any of the authors. At first I thought these chapters were specific to each writer's influences, like a Russian in a prison (cliché), and a Japanese soldier who lost his legs. But the stories are so in specific and disengaging. They are full of mediocre dialogue and the writer is obviously trying to fit the story into 20 pages.

I would argue this is a children's book but (spoilers), grandpa is later caught cheating, revealing his two lives, of being an American father and while raising a French family on the side.

Chapter one begins with a young girl, a troubled brother, and parents, who are hardly mentioned in the book, and only used to emphasize their inability to understand their own children (cliché).

The young girl, named Maggie, struggles with her grandfather's death, and refuses to accept comfort from anyone about it. She argues that her grandfather, nicknamed "Gee" was the only one who understood her, even though she knows absolutely nothing about him. Why is he called "Gee"? Because that is the first letter of his first name, very creative, right? The main plot is built from Maggie's response to what she inherited from her grandfather. He leaves her a box of boxes coded by random letters (filled with seashells) that lead her to "throw them all back" to the oceans of the world. Really, the way she drew that conclusion from these letters (A A E NA A SA A) is baffling. Nothing is explained as to whether this the actual intention and I was left really confused on the meaning behind it.

Somehow, her father, out of nowhere, manages a trip to Japan from his job, and "coincidentally" invites Maggie to go. Maggie continues to travel to other nations to visit the same places and people her grandfather supposedly visited only to "throw them all back". So you remember how Maggie and her family new nothing about their own father/grandfather. Well they discover who he really is through a Google search. Really creative, a simple google search, not a letter, or maybe through the characters the writers dedicated their chapters to. Well it is revealed online that he was a famous photographer, (the only detail the family knew previously) and that he was married to a French woman that sends the family on a Lampoon vacation to discover who he was cheating with. Instead of a fun twist or something, he is revealed to be the scumbag they thought he was. The rest of the book is I guess used for you to have pity on him by meeting all the people he took pictures of. Nothing like a Japanese soldier with no legs to set the tone.

Chapter two, is about the stepbrother who wants to find his biological dad, but a letter from "Grandpa Gee" tells him otherwise. Ya because he is such a great example. The rest of his story is spent with a girl he awkwardly took a picture of, but she finds him cute (cliché).

Overall I found this to be a terrible book. I was going to say that the authors were able to collaborate really well, but is it really challenging to take a bunch of random tales and place them in a book? An English class could have (probably did) written this book as a class project. The dialogue is lazy and so is the plot. Every word is only used to propel the plot forward with little to no background or engagement. The book started off with a funeral and yet they were still able to disengage me in the worst way possible. The character development is poor with little relation built between anyone including the reader. The parents were simply there for the rare comedic element and serve as a reason why the kids pursue their escape to explore their cheating relative's past. The funny thing is they take the fact that their life is a lie thing pretty well. The supporting characters could have been anyone in this book because they all shared the same amount of development and flat line attempt to appeal to the reader. The only positive aspect about this book is that all purchases of the book will benefit Amnesty International. Trust me the cover would encourage anyone to fork out twenty bucks if they didn't bother to read the first page.