Title: Some of Tim's Stories
Author: S.E. Hinton
Release Date: April 2, 2009
Publisher: Speak
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
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Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synonpsis from Amazon:
Continue celebrating 50 years of The Outsiders by reading S. E. Hinton's profound and wry compilation of fourteen short stories. Terry and Mike are cousins whose families are almost seamlessly intertwined. Raised as close as brothers and living happy childhoods, neither one thinks of what can go wrong. But the unexpected deaths of both their fathers catapult their lives in two very different directions. Terry finds trouble with the law, while Mike lives his life racked with guilt and sadness. S. E. Hinton gives readers a gritty view of how one incident, one tragedy, affects two boys very differently, and changes their lives forever.
My Review from February 13, 2022:
S.E. Hinton's Some of Tim's Stories is a collection of very short stories that are about two cousins, who were raised like brothers, and how one incident - one tragedy - affected their lives very differently.
Hinton "took a roundabout way of writing in first person, using a narrator who writes his stories in third person".
Being a Hinton fan ever since I read The Outsiders, when I first saw this, the cover pulled me in, and I instantly looked forward to it, expecting it to be a great, heartbreaking story about two boys who were like brothers.
Unfortunately, though, to my disappointment, it wasn't like I expected. They were just a collection of random short stories with just not much character depth for me to connect with them, and I agree with one reviewer on Goodreads saying that they were like a collection of "exercises that were written in a college creative writing course" and then combined together to make it a book. To be honest, reading it mostly felt like a chore. I expected more from it. Also, the last story ended in a cliffhanger, unfortunately.
The only thing I really enjoyed about this book though was the special features, which were the interviews with S.E. Hinton that took over the rest of the book.
I was really happy to get to know my favorite author more. I bet she really bonded with the actors who starred in her movies, especially Matt Dillion.
Finally, all I can say is that Some of Tim's Stories may not be my best S.E. Hinton read, but it was mostly good for pass time.