Who Killed Christopher Goodman? by Allan Wolf Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“This is not Christopher Goodman's murder. It is ours...It belongs to every single one of us who is left alive.”- Who Killed Christopher Goodman?, Allan Wolf

Everybody likes Chris Goodman.

Sure, he’s kind of weird. He wears those crazy bell-bottoms and he really likes the word ennui and he shakes your hand when he meets you, but he’s the kind of guy who’s always up for a good time, always happy to lend a hand. Everybody likes Chris Goodman, which is why it’s so shocking when he’s murdered.

How could a thing like this happen?

This is one of those books I'll probably forget completely about before the end of the month. It was an impulse pick up at the library, mostly due to that little note at the bottom "based on a true crime". That's one of my biggest buzzphrases. I freaking love true crime nonfiction (and fiction based off true crime too). I mean, I suppose this is a mystery novel- and it's advertised as such- but it seemed more like a contemporary than a straight-up mystery novel, since it's fairly obvious whodunit.

I suppose the mystery part of it is more how the night unfolded as opposed to who actually killed him. The problem is, though, it's such a quick read (though it took me like 3 days because I just had no real motivation to actually read anything) that there's no time for suspense, a key aspect in any good mystery novel. I do suppose that is preferable to too much suspense, something that's one of my biggest bitch points in mystery novels. It's hard for beginning mystery authors to find sweet spot between too much and too little, and most lean towards too much, bogging down the book. Wolf, on the other hand, went for too little, proving that also isn't that great either. I'm not saying that this book should have been dragged out to over 400 pages, but perhaps it would have helped the novel feel more like a mystery.

Another issue I had was the characters. There's some glimmers of interesting characters, and traits I haven't seen before, but overall I just didn't get enough of them. It's sad, too, because they sound like really cool characters that I would like. A genius with Tourette's Syndrome, done tastefully. A football-playing good ol' boy shown in a positive light. A petite and pretty stamp-collector. These are the types of characters I want to see more in novels, and the small traces we got of their home and family lives didn't seem like it was enough. Even Christopher Goodman (really, Goodman, you actually went with that) seemed like a pretty cool, Ferris Bueller-kinda guy but there wasn't enough to make me actually care about him. And the whole yawn-wee thing was straight up stupid. As was Operation Petting-Zoo Poo. Both of them made me roll my eyes.

The writing also felt juvenile. Reminded me of a middle grade novel, and as a result I didn't like it very much. Now, I'm not opposed to middle grade novels, per se. I don't seek them out, but I do like some middle grade novels, like Neal Shusterman's Antsy Bonano series and the graphic novels of Raina Telgemeier (that one's a twofer, because I'm not much for graphic novels either). But this book was advertised as a YA novel, but apart from a few swears and some light mentioning of sex I would have no problem giving it to a 7th grader. Hell, even with the swears and sex I wouldn't have a problem- I mean, I read the ttyl series when I was in 7th grade and ended up a pretty straight-laced teenager. 

So what was good about this book? Like I said, I liked some of the aspects of the characters. I was interested in the storyline. I especially liked the parts towards the end of the novel, where topics like blame and guilt and grieving and forgiveness are addressed. I thought that was nice, not new or insightful, but still nice for someone who may be going through the same thing as these teenagers. It doesn't have to be a murder, it could be a car accident or a suicide or anything really (though maybe not disease). 

I also liked the time period this book was set in ('79). Even though not much was actually done with it, it still seemed like a cool time to set a book, especially because my parents were right around the same age as these characters were in 1979.

So I didn't hate this book. I even kind of liked it, despite its poor characterization and surface-level writing. But, like I said above, I just have a feeling that, when the end of the month rolls around and I have to write my wrap-up, I think I'm going to forget about this novel completely. Sorry, Christopher Goodman.

6 out of 10