What it Was Like by Peter Seth
Story starts out with a man in prison and he writes a story about how he ended up there.
As a young teen he heads to upstate NY to work at a sumeer camp. There are events that lead up to the killings that are time stamped.
There are so many details and the descriptionss are so precise, I feel as if I am close by as it's happening.
He is able to learn so much more about the sommunity and Camp Mooncliff and best places to go that he feels very informaed when he steps off the bus.
We learn about his family home life and his college years.
Story goes along as the couple reunite while he's at college and then things happen that they grow apart but he wants to get back with her...
Very dark happenings towards the end you wonder what is going on or how it will all end as they drive up to the camp area where they first met.
Didn't see the story hapening as it did, like the unpredictability and how it all plays out.
Praise, about the author and acknowledgements to others ends this bok.
Want to read more from thsi author because of the descriptions that I can picutre in my mind and he tells a good story that will stay with me.
Received this review copy from the publisher The Story Plant and this is my honest opinion. ( )

What It Was Like is the debut novel by Peter Seth, coming out by the Story Plant publisher in September of this year. I had the opportunity to read an early release gallery of the novel.

It tells the story of a soon-to-be college freshman (we are never given his name) who conveys a very detailed account of how an all-consuming love affair with a seventeen year old beauty named Rachel led to the ruination of his life. It is told in three acts: how they met at a summer camp, how the relationship swings back and forth once they return to the real world, and then how things all fall apart on one fateful night.

I have to admit that I struggled to get through this one. If I was not asked to review it, I might not have ever finished it. I found that the first two acts were painstakingly drawn out. The narrator gives a day-by-day detailed account that could have easily been pruned by a third to a half and still been effective. I get that it fits with the idea of the man wanting to convey every little fact, showing how all consuming this love affair was for him, but no person would realistically remember every little thing like that.

However, the third act is when things finally start to pay off and that is when the details are important. Still, some of the "reveals" in that part just seemed to be coming in from left-field. There was not enough foundation in parts one and two to justify them.

Then again, with the story only told from the view-point of the narrator, there is really no way for the author to easily convey that. And perhaps, ultimately, that might be the failing point of the story - the chosen narration style. By committing to just the point of view as the hapless, lovelorn victim, so many things are left to what is shown on the surface of the other characters (via actions and words).

In the end, I felt little sympathy for the narrator. He had an-out at one point but falls right back into it again because he lets his heart over-rule his head. If this were an actual real-life story, I would have said he got what he deserved. ( )

I have to say that I really got lost in this book. I kept thinking that it seemed so real. I even flipped back to the copyright page to make sure it was fiction. Lol. This book was that realistic for me. I would like to think that the narrator of the story, a young college man was just a victim of circumstances, but I am not so sure. It is a little strange we never learn his name. As the story unfolds, you know that something bad happened, but you don’t find out what till almost the end. Is this guy a scape goat or is he guilty? He can say whatever he wants, because in the end there are no witnesses. A young girl and a young guy are obsessed with each other and a crime occurs.

” … Of course, I never told them the truth, but by then I was very good at that (pg. 456)”

This leads me to believe that he isn’t always truthful. Also in the retelling of the event he seems to lack emotion and remorse. He said on page 459 that he is trying to tell the truth. Why doesn’t he say I am telling the truth? But then again he portrays himself as just an average kind of guy. Did he do the crime or did she? That is really the question. We will never know. I really liked this book. It is a great first novel!!! I give this one a 4 out 5 stars. ( )