No Known Address

by Steven Barwin

Teen homelessness is not always connected to poverty and crime. Sometimes there's more to the story. Tyler comes from a privileged family. When he's blamed for bringing prescription narcotics to a party, his abusive dad kicks him out of his home. This novel brings to light the serious nature of verbal and emotional abuse and how difficult it is to be understood and access support in such circumstances.

Genres: Realistic Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published August 17, 2020

About the author

STEVEN BARWIN is a writer and a teacher who lives in Toronto. He has written for television shows as well as DVD interactive games. His previous Sports Stories novels, Slam Dunk and Roller Hockey Blues, were both Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice selections.

Reviews

[Joel Jimenez · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a book i'd go out of my way to read its kinda just meh

[Tara Jolley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Realistically would give this a 2.5 or so. It was just okay.

[Tabby {Genie in a Novel} · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should’ve known by the length that it was going to be just okay. It wasn’t really like reading a YA book as much as a lower middle grade one, but I’ve even read middle grade books that had more detailed narration that put you inside the story than this one. This idea just had a lot more potential, in my opinion.

Full Review

I’m not sure why I expected more of this story, given that it’s under 200 pages, but I did and I was disappointed. I mean, maybe if it was categorized as a middle-grade novel, it would be fine, but as a young-adult novella it’s a let-down.

The plot had great potential, but the execution didn’t live up to it. There should have been so much more angst and drama in a story like this; more depth and exploration. Given Tyler’s abuse, he should’ve had more inner turmoil that only got worse when he was all along with nowhere to stay and being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. In a book that tackles this kind of content, readers want to feel the character’s pain and be in the story with them (why us bookworms are like this, I have no idea, but we are). The book was just too short to go into that kind of detail, and it really should have.

Aside from the lack of depth in the story, there’s the issue of how it’s written. The narration is more like reading a younger middle grade book (as in, ages 9-10) where everything is just told to you. We’re just told the story, as opposed to being pulled into it and can see and feel what’s going on. It’s not on par with other young-adult novels that tackle similar subjects.

Part of me wants to give this a lower rating, but it’s not exactly horrible. Again, it’s just not exactly a young-adult novel in my opinion and shouldn’t be categorized as one. I still wouldn’t recommend this book either way because I really don’t think the plot is done any justice.