The God of War

by Marisa Silver

In a scruffy desert town in 1978, twelve-year-old Ares Ramirez lives in a trailer with his mother and younger brother. In this desolate, forgotten place, government fighter planes and helicopters make training runs by night using live ammunition. When an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea, Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, is inspired to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. But it is his troubled family that makes Ares a casualty of a different kind of war. His brother, Malcolm, is mentally handicapped, and his mother, distrusting authorities, chooses not to do anything about it, leaving the burden to Ares to protect his vulnerable brother from a world that sees him as "a retard." As he fights to define himself and to see a future for himself outside of the suffocating box of his home, Ares befriends a dangerous older kid, and what was once play becomes terrifyingly real as violence changes his life forever.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Novels, Book Club, Coming Of Age, Mental Health, Contemporary

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2008

About the author

Marisa Silver is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel, Mary Coin (published by Blue Rider Press, March 7th, 2013).

Marisa Silver directed her first film, Old Enough, while she studied at Harvard University. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1984, when Silver was 23. Silver went on to direct three more feature films, Permanent Record (1988), with Keanu Reeves, Vital Signs (1990) and He Said, She Said (1991), with Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins. The latter was co-directed with her husband-to-be, Ken Kwapis.

After making her career in Hollywood, she switched her profession and entered graduate school to become a short story writer. Her first short story appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 2000 and subsequently several more stories have been published there.

Silver also published the short-story collection, Babe in Paradise, in 2001. That collection was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. A story from the collection was included in The Best American Short Stories 2000. In 2005, she published No Direction Home and in 2008, The God of War was published to great acclaim.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another sad but wonderful story. I recommend this one for sure!

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book and I never want to read it again.

[Paul Pessolano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The God of War” by Marisa Silver, published by Simon & Schuster.

Category – Fiction/Literature Publication Date – April, 2008.

Ares Ramirez is 12 years old and has been named after Ares, the God of War. He lives with his mother and brother in a secluded and poverty stricken area of the desert. This is a story of his coming of age in very difficult circumstances. Ares has seen men come into and out of the life of his mother, with only one spending any kind of time with them as a family. His mother, although a loving and caring person, has problems dealing with society. She is also burdened bringing up two young boys as a single mom. Ares’s, brother, Malcolm is mentally handicapped and is almost totally the responsibility of Ares. Ares has a special affinity to Malcolm because he believes that he is responsible for his handicap.

Ares, trying to forge a life for himself, starts to turn away from both Malcolm and his mother. He befriends a young man with a sordid background and finds himself over his head and in big trouble. The trouble involves the killing of the friend and subsequent blame on Ares. It is only in later life that Ares is able to overcome all the obstacles in his path and find inner peace.

After reading 20 pages of this book I put it down and for some reason picked it up again and found that I could not put it down. The book only starts to come to life after 20 pages but is well worth the effort of staying with it.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marisa Silver's second novel made a huge emotional impact on me. I was alternately enthralled and annoyed but by the end I could not recall what had annoyed me. Laurel is a single mom raising two sons in a cramped trailer on the Salton Sea in the late 1970s. The story is told by her older son, twleve-year-old Ares, who chooses to play the god of war in the family.

Ares is tortured by the conviction that because he dropped his younger brother on his head when Malcolm was a baby, he is responsible for Malcolm's developmental difficulties. As in a Greek tragedy, Ares' guilt drives the story, the incidents and the arc of his life.

I could relate to Laurel in her extreme determination to live on her own terms. She works as a massage therapist and barely supports her children. She refuses to face Malcolm's troubles, which are either retardation or some form of autism, preferring to see him as merely a child who develops at his own pace, and she flatly rejects any intervention by authorities, social or medical. Ares and Malcolm have different fathers who are long gone.

Because of their life style, Ares assumes most of the care of his brother, thereby expiating some of his guilt. We are not surprised when things go very wrong, not least because a gun appears early in the tale. I loved the development of each character though not a single one is entirely admirable, just as none of us are. The melding of place, time and character in this novel is an extraordinary feat similar to an expertly cooked meal.

The Salton Sea, one of those iconic California locations, which fascinates those of us who live here, is as much of a character as Ares or Laurel. I have never visited there but someday I will and I will go with trepidation. It is the perfect setting for a woman like Laurel, whom I simultaneously admired and deplored, because I could have been her.

In the 70s, many of us went off the grid of middle class life, turning our backs on everything our parents held dear, losing our religion, rejecting Western medicine and mental treatment, tripping down the paths of mysticism, certain that by benign neglect we would raise our children to be free spirits who would inherit the better world we were creating. Reading The God of War was as much an exploration of my own guilt as it was that of Ares' guilt.

Laurel, Ares and even the unfortunate damaged Malcolm made decisions based on the urge to be free. As in any life such decisions can be life saving and devastating at the same time. Hopefully I have made it somewhat clear how I could be both enthralled and annoyed by this novel. Hopefully I have made you want to read The God of War.

[Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book because I thought I would relate to it. First, it takes place by the Salton Sea--the desolation of the area fascinates me. Second, it takes place in the 70s, "my" era. Finally, it is a story of a single mother raising two boys while working.
Marisa Silver delivered a short novel that grabbed me, entertained me and provided some insight into my own life. Can't ask for more. I do hope I was a better mother than this one.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay first off, I can't hold back any longer: I LOVED this book!!! I was not sure I would, when I looked at the cover and read the title but, "don't judge a book by its cover"---trust me on this one, and the story is not about war either.

The God of War, by Marisa Silver is actually a coming of age story. It is one of those rare gems that I did not want to put down once I started it, and, when I turned the final page (just 271), I had wished it was longer.

The story takes place in 1978, and is narrated by twelve (almost 13) year old Ares (God of War - Greek Mythology), Ramirez. Ares, lives with his unconventional mother Laurel in a run down trailer in a remote desert community near San Diego. Laurel loves the Salton Sea (actually a polluted lake near San Diego). She tells her twelve year old son she wants to be buried there and her ashes spread into the sea. Laurel does not trust: government, corporations or schools, and she has even warned her son, Ares about religion. The boys are pretty much free to do as they please while their mother works or spends time with the latest man in her life. Still there is no doubt Laurel loves her sons.

Ares is a sensitive but conflicted boy who feels responsible for his brother Malcolm as a result of an accident where Ares had dropped his brother Malcolm when he was just one year old. For six years he has lived with guilt as a result of that accident.

Malcolm is almost seven year old now and appears mentally disabled: he cannot speak, reacts inappropriately, acts out in school, and cannot read or write. When Malcolm bites his teacher, it seems to be the final straw for him in a regular classroom. However, Mrs Poole, the school librarian agrees to work with Malcolm at her home on a weekly basis.

Ares visits Mrs. Poole's home while she is working with his brother, and seems to enjoy being there. The stability of a seemingly normal home appeals to Ares, but The Pooles have problems of their own -- Kevin is a troubled foster son who has been in and out of residential treatment facilities. Ares and Kevin begin to spend time together when tragedy strikes.

The God of War is an intense story with memorable but flawed characters that most readers will not easily forget. One of the best coming of age stories that I've read in years. I look forward to reading more books by this talented author. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the plus side, the characters seem reasonably well developed. No one is evil, everyone is trying to do good and failing. The narrator's adolescent rebellion was relatable, all that stuff, even if it's impossible to believe that the speaker is male. The big problem is the sentences. Some examples:

"I felt betrayed, not by them but by my younger self who had naively accepted everything and had not looked beyond the near horizon of my life to see how insignificant I was."

“I was suffused with a leaden sadness.”

"Everything around me was falling apart. My life felt broken, and there was nothing in the house, no person, who could keep me safe."

"Her eyes were glistening oceans."

These aren't the worst sentences ever written. They're just trite and usually overblown. I would be amiss if I didn't mention worst-in-show, though, which was sadly overlooked for the Bad Sex Award:

"Her back was to me, and her hip-hugger pants eased down so that I could see where that mysterious road that separated the cheeks of her butt began."

[Karen Germain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up Marisa Silver's "The God of War" at a Goodreads book exchange several years ago. I just grabbed it on a hunch and it has been sitting on my bookshelf. I am very happy to have picked it up and to have finally read it, because it is a fantastic book.

Set by the desolate Salton Sea in California and told through the eyes of twelve year old Ares Ramirez, "The God Of War" is a coming of age story about a kid trying to navigate adolescence in the shadow of a highly dysfunctional family.

The Salton Sea and surrounding shanty towns are as big of a character as any in the story. Having visited the Salton Sea for the first time (and hopefully only time) last Spring, I can completely appreciate the truth of the world that Silver has created. I've never visited somewhere so depressing. The smell of rotten fish permeates and walking on crunching fish bones along the shore was memorable. Even though the book is set in the 70's, the town that she describes is exactly what you will see if you were to visit it today. Having lush Palm Springs just a short drive away, really makes the area extra depressing.

This is a community that lives on the fringe, holding tight to their privacy. Ares and his mentally handicapped brother, Malcolm, live with their neglectful mother in a trailer. The thing that is heartbreaking is the mother isn't purposefully negligent, she sincerely loves her family and feels that she is raising her boys in the best manner possible. Ares sees an alternate life with stability, when a librarian from the school intervenes to tutor Malcolm.

The entire story has Ares crying out for love and attention in a variety of ways, sometimes negatively. The sad truth of the entire situation is even when adults intervene, they have to do so at a distance to respect the mother and blood family unit. This is such a pervasive problem in our society and this novel only highlights it through Ares and Malcolm's struggle. Many people see a problem, but nobody steps up in a long-term, meaningful way.

Ares is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders, both real and imagined responsibilities. His struggle is a heartbreak to read. Silver gives an authentic and emotive voice to her narrator and tells a compelling story.

i highly recommend "The God of War" and look forward to reading more novels by Silver.

Please visit my blog for more reviews and bookish things. Including pictures our trip to the Salton Sea.

[Dillwynia Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a contemporary US writer, I was a little apprehensive to start with (after my foray with Conroy), but the apprehension quickly disappeared.

The story & characters are believable, particularly the guilt of Ares and how he processes and atones for it. The narrative moves at a quick but acceptable pace and I found I didn't want to do other things, but rather settle in a decent chair & light & watch the play of circumstances. My only small niggle - & it is small - is I felt the last few chapters were rushed. I think they could have been fleshed out by an additional 10 pages or so. (See a very small niggle)

I fortunately had read up on the Salton Sea & Slab City, otherwise, I would have been lost on these aspects of the story. I would recommend others unfamiliar with these places to use wikipedia to get a full appreciation of their impact on the people that populate this novel. I feel it makes the novel so much more accessible.

I plan to search out more of Marisa Silver's works.

[Jill Sorenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeously written, heartbreaking, hopeful and sad at the same time. This is a story about a 12 year old boy growing up near the Salton Sea in the 70s. Ares deals with feelings of guilt over his brother's accident, and frustration with 6 year-old Malcolm's disabilities. He also rages against his irresponsible mother, who leaves the bulk of Malcolm's care to Ares. Although Areas is a good brother, gentle with Malcolm, he wants to rebel and lash out and escape.

The writing draws attention to itself, with maybe some overused (but still beautiful and creative) metaphors. I felt like I knew Ares and I wanted to know what happened to him. The author gives us a glimpse of him as a adult. It reads as true and real as an autobiography. I'm conflicted about the sequence of events leading to the resolution and its implications. Strong 4 stars.

[Karima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Setting: 1978 Southern CA. . Bombay Beach, on the shores of the Salton Sea (about 85 mies south of San Diego).
Sound romantic? Picturesque? Not. This is a forgotten place populated by lonely, wounded, barely making-it people.
Narrated by 12-year-old fatherless Ares Ramirez, who lives with his trying-hard but bedraggled mother and a disabled, two-year-old younger brother, Malcolm.
Another going-of age-story. Yes. Worth your time? Definitely. Silver really nails adolescent anger and confusion, single motherhood, do-good foster parents and so much more. At times, painful to read, (listen to). It didn't matter if I liked or approved of the characters; I became them.

Took away one star because I though the ending was not a strong as it could have been.

Didn't care for the narration. The tone was overly dramatic throughout. Ominous; every word dripping with impending doom.

[Storjia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really enjoying this book until the last chapter. I would have given the book four stars but the last chapter did not flow or seem to fit the rest of the book. The ending is so critical to me. More so than the first few pages. With that, I would suggest this book as a good read, but would always want to know how the reader felt about the ending.
Very fast read. Loved everyone in the book. Especially Richard and Mrs. Poole. I would love to see this made into a movie, which is saying a lot from me.
Reviewing this tonight in the book club. Should be a very good discussion.
I am adding Marisa Silver to my must read list. I am looking forward to another.

[julieta · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many feelings that exist and grow because you are part of a family. Some like guilt, responsability, love, etc, so many, and so contrasting and intense.
This book is beautiful in that it tells you a story about a very particular family, but it reminded me at least, of what it is to find yourself a part of a group of people who happen to be your family.
Sometimes you can't stand them, and sometimes you just want to be with them for no other reason than being with them, even if it doesn' seem like you have a lot in common. It's beautifully written and the story so well told you don't want to let it down.
I think I'll call my mom now.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It was a nice, tight story, succinctly told and heartbreaking. I love realistic fiction and this one fit the bill. Great book about family dynamics, adolescence and loneliness.

[Zak Cebulski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was apprehensive about this book. I bought this book at a library book sale for 50 cents. After which I put it on my bookshelf where it sat for almost a whole year. Finally I picked it up to read after noticing that I have far too many unread books. I am glad that I got around to this book, it surpassed all of my expectations.

The story. As in all of my other reviews, or most of them at least, I will start off with the story. It takes place in 1978, and follows a 12 year old boy called ares. He, his mother laurel, and younger brother Malcolm, live in a trailer by a man made body of water. They spend most of their time playing war games, searching for remnants of military ordinance, and riding bikes. A small point that plays a huge role in the story is Malcolm. He is not "normal" as said many times in the story. He doesn't speak, he has a desire to bring home various objects that are seemingly unrelated, and he will break into a high pitch scream, should anyone except a few key people come in contact with him. Now Malcolm experiences some problems at school, to the point where he must work with the school librarian,
mrs. poole, weekly in order to stay in school. This is where ares meets the Poole's foster child, Kevin. Kevin befriends ares, but is quickly shown to have mental stability issues, a problem controlling his temper, a drug user, and has a violent way to manipulate his parents. I cannot talk more following the meeting with Kevin, or much of anything else without spoiling the story. I will say that the writing style in this book reminded me greatly of the writing style of John Green, which is by no means a bad thing. At the end of the book, expect something that I know I didn't see coming.

The characters. As I have said before, and will say again, the characters in this book were fantastic. Ares, Malcolm, laurel, Richard, mrs. Poole, Kevin, everyone. There is not one character who is underdeveloped. Furthermore, Marisa silvers has a way of writing that makes you feel things towards each character, but you also feel these things from ares' point of view. When laurel gets annoying, you feel that sense of annoyance become associated with that character. When Kevin is being sporadic, you can feel a pang of uneasy fear start to well in your stomach. As well, Ares himself has feelings and emotions that are easily understandable. Especially angst. This is a coming of age novel, and so there is bound to be some tension between a boy and parental figures. This is modeled and written extremely well, to the point where you often feel that sense of negative disposition welling up inside you when Ares feels it. One thing I do want to touch on is the character of Laurel. This character is mother to Ares and Malcolm. Is it okay to say that I didn't like the character of Laurel? Because I didn't. Many times in these type of stories when a parent makes a decision, it is simple to see why TEY made that decision, not laurel however. She makes choices that I never got around to understanding why. She is very free spirited, which is no problem to an extent, but when you 12 year old boy sees his miter walking around the home half naked, or hears his mother having sex in HIS bed, that is a little too far. She often disregards notes from the school, from Poole and more. I understand not wanting Malcolm to change, but if they can help them in the positive, wouldn't that be a good thing? I would think so. Overall, I believe that many of the characters were like able, and you cared for them. Maybe if I reread this book I will see Laurel in a different light, I will understand her choices better. In the end, expect very good character development and characters who are more that what they seem to be on the surface.

Though I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book, I am very glad that I got to it. It takes you on a enjoyable journey with enjoyable characters. I give The God of War, an enthusiastic 5/5.

[L.A.Weekly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wasteland: Marisa Silver's novel The God of War
By ELLA TAYLOR

On the face of things, Ares Ramirez, the 12-year-old at the broken heart of Marisa Silver’s elegiac new novel, The God of War, is working through a normal adolescence. His body is changing, his soul is torn between belonging and rebellion and he doesn’t know whether to love or hate his single mother, Laurel, with whom he lives in a run-down trailer in the Southern California desert bounded by Mexico and San Diego. But for a boy his age, the pain and possibilities of growing up are complicated by unusual responsibilities. Laurel, who works as a masseuse in a nearby spa, leaves Ares to care for his younger brother Malcolm. Still, the blight on Ares’ life is not Malcolm, whom Ares loves with an inchoate love as protective as it is resentful, but a secret connected with Malcolm that Ares shares only with the reader.

By the time Ares’ guilt has done its work and come to light, you will know him and the other players in his unfolding drama with such intimate specificity and sympathy that the casually contemptuous term white trash — which liberals who would never use the N word toss off without thinking twice — won’t even cross your mind. Marginality is a theme in just about any novel you pick up these days, usually written by and/or about the whiny, alienated children of unhappily prosperous families. Silver gives voice to real outsiders, society’s castoffs who eke out precarious livings around the edges of that other failure, the Salton Sea, a river deflected long ago in hopes of creating a desert oasis for tourists, and now so polluted and oversalinated that it washes up trash and dead fish by the thousand.

“The desert’s plants and animals thrived in seemingly impossible circumstances, against heat and drought and other odds,” says Ares, now an adult looking back on the savage 1978 summer that would shape his family’s future. “The same could have been said of its people, too.”

Read the rest of the review at LA Weekly:
http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/boo...

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given to me by my cousin, who said, "I defy you to read three pages of this and not want to read more." He was right. I read three pages and wanted more.

I actually did like this book a good deal, though I had many questions in my mind while reading it and still at the end, that were never answered. I was worried that it would be a Cathcher in the Rye teenage angst type novel, but unfolded in quite a different manner. The starkness of the Salton Sea fascinated me. I'd never heard of that particular area and felt the author brought it home, to life for me. It is the story of a 12 year old boy, living with his mother and disabled brother, in this lonely little community in California. He is trapped in the role of the brother of "the retard" but slowly his world begins to expand through interactions with a librarian, who is giving his brother some additional instruction/help. Add into the mix a rebellious, delinquent son of the librarian, a tumultuous homelife and a few other things, and the story has enough tension to carry it forth.


My medical mind wondered exactly what was going on with Laurel's back, and what exactly was going on with Malcolm's brain. His fascination with birds is easily understandable to me. I get lost in the beauty of their flight and I am not autistic. There are other questions that I kept screaming to myself, particularly towards the climax of the first part, but to reveal those questions would be a major spoiler. Suffice it to say, that there are some things today's society is more sophisticated about in terms of crimes and crime scenes.

Anyhow, it was a good book. I read it on the flight back from California.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was attracted to this novel by the setting, having recently visited California’s Salton Sea on a road trip west. While I generally flee from stories of adolescent boys or any that might be sporting a “coming-of-age” theme, I was so captivated by the location that I felt compelled to give this one a try. After discovering the Salton Sea herself, Marisa Silver was apparently drawn to write about it in a similar way, and I feel that she beautifully captures the stark beauty of sea itself along with the underlying menace or wrongness that pervades the surroundings, even in winter when the climate is at its mildest. The story that grew around this setting was very well told and so appropriate to the location, a place that seems abandoned and neglected, a logical place for those who don’t quite fit in. Silver’s characters are complex and frustrating at the same time, often (but understandably) persisting in self-destructive behaviors that can only lead to bad outcomes. I liked the story and found it sad, and yet hopeful. I wish I felt more hopeful about the sea itself, an ill-conceived accident that has evolved into an environmental disaster, yet remains a stop-over that migrating birds depend upon. A great read for those who have seen the place. If you haven���t, the story will be enhanced by a bit of research and a look at some pictures of the area.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book! After hearing about how dark it is from several of my book group members who had already read it, I thought I wasn't going to like it, but I really did. The writing is exquisite, which I had heard prior to reading it. I found the characters entirely realistic and felt their feelings and actions were believable given the circumstances. I was struck by how real the story seemed, and at times felt I was reading non-fiction. This book is the book that was selected by the Claremont Friends of the Library for the city-wide book to read this year. This means that a lot of local people will read it, put yard signs out about it and then events will be offered to the public to hear from the author, discuss the book, etc. Anyone who has visited the Salton Sea in the inland desert near San Diego and Mexico will appreciate the bleakness of the landscape and that body of water, which is where the characters in the book live. It's really a story about the painful transition of childhood into adolescence in a depressing, marginalized family situation.

[Holly Anne Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reader follows the story of a boy as he deals with the responsibilities of rearing his younger, impaired brother while going through the stages of adolescence, in a poor, rural community in Southern California.

The boy deals with teenage struggles that are universal enough that this reader could identify with him, and unique enough that the story is new and fresh. I found the main character likable and his relationship with his brother believable and endearing. The author paints the brother in such a light that his disability is both beautiful and understandably frustrating. Their mother plays a large part in this story, as an offbeat personality with the creative ability to live in her own world where she can celebrate trash as treasure. Her push to label both her boys as normal and perfect, holds them back.

I recommend this book to readers who have the ability to look back on their adolescence with objectivity and those who are looking to read about strong sibling bonds, loyalty, and the way the past shapes decisions made in the future.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. While it did not make it as a 5-star (not everything can) it was very close. This novel provides a really wonderful look into the mind of an adolescent who suffers a myriad of ways as he attempts to come to grips with his past that haunts him, his mentally disabled brother, his family, his environment and finally death. It is wonderfully written in first person by Marisa Silver who delivers a story that kept me turning the pages throughout the night.

With the exception of an ending that jumps forward in time to adult hood (not sure it was necessary), most of the novel is centered around a short period during the school year while the antagonist, a 12 year old boy, struggles with who he is and what his impact on his family really is.

A wonderful glimpse into the psyche of a young boy attempting to grapple with issues any adult man would have difficulty doing. Definitely worth a read!

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Most critics were drawn in by this sad and lovely tale of a lonely boy weighed down by burdens even an adult would find difficult to bear. Silver's characters are carefully rendered and sympathetic, her prose is compulsively readable, and her portrayal of Malcolm's autism is accurate and meaningful. As a narrator looking back 30 years, Ares is clever and perceptive; however, to the dismay of critics, the mature adult's voice spills over too often into the boy's thoughts and insights. Silver also tries to correlate her characters' violent acts with brutality in the world at large, with varying results. Despite these flaws, many critics agreed that Silver has written a "quietly powerful and remarkably moving" novel (San Francisco Chronicle)

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Kim Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel because I have long had a fascination with the Salton Sea, and I was hoping it would give me a feeling for the haphazard communities that have developed around this "accidental" sea. I did not expect any kind of history lesson; what I was hoping for was a mood. But the book, though well done, left me feeling flat. Who knows? Maybe that is what life around the sea does to the people who live there, and in that, the book succeeds. But I felt that I was missing something ... I wanted more than the book gave me in telling the story of a boy carrying around the terrible secret of his younger damaged brother---both the secret of the damage done to his brother and the secret of an event from which he protects his brother. The three star rating is based on my expectations, and I still feel this is a strong book that would make a good book club book---lots here for discussion.

[Heather Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book immediately grabbed my attention. It starts with a hidden gun and a 12 year old boy protecting his severely autistic little brother. I was expecting it to go on with a trial and the aftermath. Instead it told about their life before the incident and the older brother's life with a autistic brother. This isn't nothing bad, I just thought it would be more interesting to hear what happened after. It does come back to the gun and major incident, but not until the last disc and in a brief manner. I am also surprised it is considered YA. I believe it is more an adult story and only a few teens would enjoy the story. I feel the teens, like me, would be more enthralled with the incident itself, the aftermath and a little of the circumstances leading up to event. That would be a much more action packed story.

[Abhilash Mangu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The God of War labels a fiction story of a teenager growing up and learning to separate from his family, a story that actually comes out quite tame with no large climaxes or huge moments where the tension is extremely high. The book mainly focuses on character interactions, which is what I am usually attracted to books for, so I found this book really nice to just sift through dialogue and see the voice of each different character.

This books also provides a perspective of living with a single mom and living in a trailer park, both experiences I've never even been close to having. This book brings the environment to life, with main character Ares describing that life from his perspective, making the book infinitely easier to read.

[Jennifer Miera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't often read fiction with a contemporary setting (though, I suppose 1978 isn't exactly "contemporary"). The mother in this book was loving, but largely absent, leaving her 12 year old son to car for his mentally handicapped brother. Though the book was brutally realistic and made for a tense read, it was so compelling I finished it in two days. Makes me realize that reality is beautiful in it's flawed and limping form.

[Veronica IRWIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Silver wrote this book!! The story of two brothers growing up near the Salton Sea in California with a "hippie" for a mother (the best way I can describe her), the oldest yearning for independence, feeling guilt and taking on the weight of his small world at a young age. The youngest fascinated with birds and living inside his own head.
It's a quick and heartfelt read in so many ways.

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a beautifully written book, and I really cared for the characters. Very effective: Ares' take on Malcolm--"He must experience life as a smashed mirror..." (p. 62) and "I was afraid for him. I was afraid for both of us." (p. 235) With good reason, unfortunately. Although the subject matter was serious, I didn't consider this a heavy or depressing book. Almost, but not quite a 5-star rating for me.

[Daniel Hembree · Rating 4 out of 5]

My wife got this book and raved about it. I started listening to it, not expecting much but curios about life around the Salton sea. I became engrossed in the story and characters, all of them except the boy falling short of who they could be and failing to do the things they needed to do. The narration was as good as the writing. One historical issue, the Salton sea was not "man made" or an "accident", but the result of a torrential flood that changed the course of the Colorado.

[Barbandbianco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this author and I have read other books by her as well. I like reading books that portray lives that are so different from mine and yet relatable. In this book, the characters are very human as they deal with tragedy and overcome their limitations (as we all hope to do). However, the family is run by a strong female who must overcome some of life's major challenges ( an autistic son, disappointing love relationships, public professionals that are not helpful). Intriguing.