Rating: 2 stars
Headline: A twisted coming of age tale, packed with poetic language but lacking structural execution
Review:
*This review contains spoilers*
Hallelujah by Niko Janarek is a short story of a small disfunctional family; brothers Josh and Georgie, their mother and grandfather Bob. Tensions are present from start, particularly between Josh, a rebellious teenager who is artistically-minded and Bob, an alcoholic who would rather see his grandson peruse a career in the army. A heated spat ensues between the two generational alphas, resulting in the off-scene death of Bob, after he stumbles back to his bedroom.
Acts two and three follow closely Josh and the young Georgie, who rapidly try to conceal the body of their deceased grandfather. Appearances of the mother figure become fleeting; her sudden change in personality (including instances of extreme paranoia and denial), suggest a character undergoing severe mental trauma. Her knowledgement of her feather’s death occurs towards the end of act three, when she walks in on Josh attempting to set Bob’s body on fire. Believe it or not, things escalate further from there.
As a reviewer it hurts me to score this book two stars out of five. The writing and poetic language is deployed nicely for some of the early scene setting and during dramatic events, this could have, and shoud have, been a better book. Hallelujah‘s main problem lies in the storytelling itself. Some events happen at too slow a pace while other important areas are seemingly skipped over altogether. Given the lack of transparency around Bob’s cause of death, there is a massive plot hole in Josh’s thought process as to why his instant reaction is to conceal the body.
Other minor details include not establishing Georgie’s age (his mannerisms are that of a very young child, yet he appears capable of manoeuvring a heavy body into a shallow grave) and the heavy use of expletive language in too short space of time. Josh’s frustrations could be shown better through internal monologues and his interactions with the outside world.
Hallelujah, a twisted coming of age tale of one boy’s transition into manhood, has all the creative skill to make it a good read, if only the structural foundations were not as sandy.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “Hallelujah”
Purchase Link: “Hallelujah” by Niko Janarek (Amazon)
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