Walking Backward by Catherine Austen

Ever since his mother died in a car accident at the beginning of summer, twelve-year-old Josh's family and life has been totally messed up. First his father has retreated into a fantasy world where the idea of time travel is possible and he can save Josh's mother before she is killed. Josh's little brother Sammy has apparently gone "wacko" believing he can communicate to his dead mother through a plastic power ranger, and has taken to walking backward so he will remember other people i they die too. Josh himself can no longer handle much; he spazzes out over things involving his mom's death, and begins to feel insecure and misguided as his family is in mourning.

The summer after the tragedy and with no faith to lead the way, Josh takes the responsibility of finding out about the mourning rituals of various religions, being a parent to his little brother interviewing people who knew his mother and discovering the culprit who put the snake in the mom's car, causing her to drive into a tree because of her fear.

At last, Josh's dad becomes a father again, and Josh's family each figures out their own way to remember his mother. Told from the monotonous and repetitive perspective of Josh, readers will not know what exactly to think of the book from beginning to end.

Before I give you any details I'll tell you straight off that this is NOT a good book. First of all; it lacked many things. Where do I begin? Walking Backward was a book that you keep waiting for the plot to be fully revealed, but it never fully is. It was narrated very drone-like, and when certain things happen in the plot the reader will not experience them; they will merely watch from a distance. There was also no emotion in the novel. When Josh tells us how he freaks out when his mother is buried, he might as well be saying he walked his dog this morning. It was that mediocre. Another thing Walking Backward lacked was believability. The author failed at her attempt to capture the impact of grief on her characters. Instead, she mangled it and twisted it up. The book was not concluded well, either. The ending was sort of scatterbrained. There was no foreshadowing or clues left for the reader in the middle of the book; everything came totally out of the blue and almost didn't make sense. 

Finally, I will mention the last flaw in this book: the undefined and lacking in genre.  Walking Backward could have been a realistic fiction novel, except nothing, really, about it was realistic. It could be a mystery novel, except there was no foreshadowing or opportunities to make a prediction in the story. Or, even, Walking Backward  could have been a dramatic, heartbreaking tale, except the story lacked enough emotion. You probably noticed that Walking Backward's biggest flaw was how much it didn't have. I will advise avid readers to steer clear of this novel at all costs.

To Read  Not to Read