Texas---the answer

I wouldn't have imagined this book to revive me out of my almost two year reading slump, but surprisingly it did, effortlessly. I finished it in a night.

Ethan Hawke is masterful at portraying silly characters with sillier problems, spinning it eloquently, and maybe even striking a few relativity chords on the readers. Out of all his books, it is evident in this one.

I haven't read flaming romance, short and fierce, emit brightly, and plummet into quotes like "my entire string of relationships have felt like waking up at midnight craving for a glass of milk to quench my thirst, only to rush up to the fridge and drink spoilt milk out of the carton, go back to sleep and start overthinking that maybe the milk wasn't that bad and it was actually good, and head back to the fridge to drink the spoilt one again."

Masterpiece.

I really enjoyed this book. Ethan Hawke's writing is fantastic. It flows so smoothly and effortlessly that you want to read it straight through; which is what I almost did. The story was realistic and captured my attention right away. I look forward to reading more books by Ethan Hawke.

Tomorrow, I must go to the library to pick up six books
that I have placed on hold. I embarked on, "The Lust Lizard
of Melancholy Cove," by Christopher Moore, this morning.
Yesterday, I finished, "The Hottest State," by Ethan Hawke.
As, with his book, "Ash Wednesday," I found this novel to
be fascinating and fast, a real thriller, and page turner.

Mikel K

TLDR: I was looking for a book with a male POV and found it - authentic, sometimes hard to read and also quite beautiful.

This is one of those “hate the main character’s POV but still appreciate the writing” kind of books. I was really impressed with Ethan Hawke as a writer, and wonder how much of this story was fiction and how much was a glimpse of how he really thinks or used to think. It was especially painful to read how the narrator thinks about women, but considering his mental state, I have to believe that was the point.

I read this in one afternoon. It was awesome, just like Ash Wednesday.

A literary masterpiece, no - a self-gratifying read, yes. This is one of a few, well perhaps the only book, that I have read multiple times. I often visual the characters in my head, turning them into a movie, and he does a spectacular job at making the characters and their often heart-wrenching journey come alive.

I really like Ethan Hawke and the way he writes this novel you can see every moment come alive before your eyes. It is very conversational and visual. I am excited to see the movie adaption that just came out

I really enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I had to get used to it for a page or two and then I got sucked into the story.

It shows a guy who's obviously spiraling down a worse for wear mindset and his behavior steadily grows more toxic along with it. Ethan really shows you William the way he is unadulterated and raw with all of his flaws and disgusting behavior. It's all the cliches of a guy doing all the bad things to get his girlfriend back and becoming abusive with it in the progress. Although some reviews just shoot it down, I think it's important to consider that this book shows the viewpoint from a toxic guy, the way he thinks and believes he has to be. His fear of being considered gay because he can't get Sarah to love him back again is something I see recurring in a lot of young men. If you can't score, you're a f*gg*t- but also if you genuinely open yourself up. It's very interesting to see this from the man's perspective in this story because it shows the dilemma he faces but doesn't try to wash away just how horrible he is. Ethan never tries to shy away from that portrayal and only shows the context and the circumstances William is in. It's not an excuse, it's his story and as the narrator, William believes himself to be the protagonist. If you don't like a protagonist who is flawed, pretty toxic, and not the loving and standard nice guy, then this book is not for you. I really enjoyed Ethan's direct writing style and the weirdness of some scenes. It felt real.

I'm glad I read Hawke's latest book, A Bright Ray of Darkness, before I read this one, or I would've had more hard feelings for his debut. It's really admirable to see how much he's grown between the young, vulnerable artist he was at my age and the older, venerable artist he is now. There's too much of a young man's severely delicate masculinity and obsessive selfishness in this for me to have enjoyed most of it, especially personally knowing a terrible abundance of young men like the main character (and dating a few). Obviously, Hawke is a boobs guy, because breasts are mentioned in just about every non-childhood-related excerpt as well as many times in Bright Ray, which. Had me rolling my eyes a few times.

But there are similarities with Bright Ray that kept me reading--which was *very* quickly for my normal pace, I devoured this novel in 4 days. Hawke's writing voice/perspective is just so genuine and sharp; the meaning he sees in everyday details that people overlook is something compelling. Even though I didn't enjoy his debut, I appreciate having read it.

Really quite liked this.
For some reason it reminded me a lot of 'The Catcher in the Rye', although I didn't actually like that book - it just seemed like a lot of whining to me. This held my interest and I found Ethan Hawke's writing style very easy to get on with.

don't bother