Jon Pineda

Jon Pineda's Apology is a story about a boy who hits a girl with a football as she's jumping over a hole, causing her to fall and sustain major brain damage. To protect the boy's future, his sad-sack uncle takes the blame. The lives of the uncle and the boy, who grows up to be a physician, are duly explored, as is the life of the victim's twin brother.

I thought this quick read got off to a strong start, but as it progressed I found the narrative dreary and the ending melodramatic.… (mehr)

Pearl had an ordinary life with a father who taught at the university, a mother who was working on her doctorate, a nice house and a good dog. But now she, her father and her dog are living with two other squatters in an abandoned boathouse. Now fifteen, Pearl encounters a group of teenage boys, who live in the affluent town nearby and ride around on their golf carts, filming pranks for YouTube.

The feel of Let's No One Get Hurt is similar to some of Ron Rash's work, a bit like a less grim Daniel Woodrell. It's set in an unnamed part of the American South, although it felt like coastal Virginia to me. Author Jon Pineda is also a poet, so each word feels carefully chosen and his descriptions are vivid. This would be out of place in most stories about people living outside of society, but since Pearl is the child of two highly educated parents, it works. There's a strong narrative pull to this novel, but it's rendered largely in brief, snapshot-like vignettes. I'm looking forward to seeing what this author writes next.… (mehr)