Drinkwater

by: Eric Hopkins

Published by: Crackjaw Publishing

Reviewed by Heather Durow

Drinkwater opens with Amber and her younger brother, Guy, on a train heading to Toronto to start a fresh life with their Uncle Ian. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned. Their uncle never arrives to pick them up from the train station. Unsure of where to turn, Amber and Guy roam Toronto looking for a place to stay. After finding a college acquaintance to stay with, Amber makes the decision to go ahead with their new life as planned, without contacting their social worker.

With a narration that seems to go nowhere and subtle prejudices scattered throughout the storyline, Drinkwater is a weak coming-of-age story. The reader is not told Amber and Guy’s last name (which is the title of the book) for several pages. They seem unconcerned with the fact that their uncle is nowhere to be found and they have no real place to live.

In all honesty, I did not finish this book. The story traveled in circles and there was no reasonable resolution in sight. The narration has no real soul, and I just could not care about the main characters. After 100 pages, I still had not found out what happened to Uncle Ian or why Amber and Guy needed to live with him in the first place. What happened to their parents?

The writing style did have a fairly easy flow with the exception of a few unfinished sentences.

Armchair Interviews says: An interesting idea that suffers from lack of professional editing.