Book Review: We Need To Do Something by Max Booth III
Look, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to tell you anything new here. I’ve seen nothing but positive acclaim for this title, and I’m going to be adding my voice to the din momentarily.
The elevator pitch for We Need To Do Something: a family of four shelters in a bathroom on page one to avoid a severe storm warning. Booth sets out to do something pretty unique and extraordinary here, asking himself, “Can I set an entire 150-page book in one small room and make it interesting?” The answer is yes, you magnificent bastard.
The story is intriguing, but not much actually happens for the first half. Rather we spend this time getting to know the characters. Melissa is an angsty teen who, despite the first-person writing, manages to keep some secrets from the reader, gradually doling them out as the pages turn. In the interest of show, don’t tell, Booth does a fantastic job of showing us Melissa’s love for (most of) her family. Bobby is either the little brother you had, or the little brother one of your friends had. Hell, maybe he was you. Anyone who complains about the overabundant usage of words like “butt” and “fart” needs to meet a little boy.
Melissa’s parents are…let’s say nuanced. Dad is instantly recognizable, and definitely on Facebook. Mom is imbued with a quiet strength, and although flawed, the last remaining bit of glue holding the family together. As a beginning writer, I kept my eyes wide for how to make a book like this novella-length, and a relatively long novella at that. The answer: build characters, establish conflict, and compelling dialogue. Simple on the surface, but not so easy to pull off as to talk about.
The last thirty to forty pages are what puts this book irretrievably into five-star territory for me. Booth sets the anxiety dial on ten, and then slowly turns it up for the rest of the book, a crescendo into chaos if you will. Christopher Nolan has this technique he uses in a lot of his movie trailers, notably Dunkirk, where he takes a piece of Hans Zimmer’s score that focuses on sustained tone and just increases volume and dissonance throughout the run time. The end of We Need To Do Something felt like this was happening, and there were times when it felt like too much. When I hit page 150 and the story was over, I found that my stomach physically hurt.
This book will stick with me, and as I said at the beginning, a lot of you might already know that, but if you haven’t gotten around to it yet, move it up the list. If you were going to skip it, don’t. Simple as that. My highest recommendation if you want to a story that will get under your skin in the best way.
Amazon - Amazon UK - Bookshop - Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing
Review by Brennan LaFaro
Blog: brennanlafaro.wordpress.com
Twitter: @whathappensnex5
I purchased this book for review consideration
