DNF Review: Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin

Quick Facts

My Rating: DNF

Series: N/A

Date Read: March 30, 2015

Source: Free review copy from Netgalley

Publication Date: April 14, 2015

Publisher: Random House Children's

Genres: Young adult, science fiction

Goodreads | Author's Website

Review

Denton lives in a world where everybody knows what day they will die. His own is only one day away. But the day before his funeral, Denton's life seems to speed up - he's suddenly involved in a love triangle, recieves a death threat, has a purple rash on his leg that might be the disease that will kill him, and meets a strange man at his funeral who claims to have known his dead mother. He has many questions that he fears will go unanswered, because tomorrow he will be gone.

While the premise seemed interesting, this one just wasn't for me. A big piece of Denton Little's Deathdate relies on the humor, and I did not find it especially funny.

The story started off well, and I thought it would be a quick, light read. I laughed a few times, and definitely saw where people were coming from when they called it funny. The story began to fall short for me around Denton's funeral, which was a little more than 10 percent through. There was a chapter told in second-person that felt awkward to me, and I did not enjoy the love triangle that was developing - to me, it seemed like both girls would be far better off without Denton. 

The more the story progressed, the less I found myself caring about how Denton would die or what would happen next. After making it about a third of the way through the book, I decided to put it down and find something different to read.

I think you really have to connect with the humor in order to enjoy this one, and probably like Denton himself a little more than I did. Based on what I read, I would probably give the book about three stars - it was well-written, and there were aspects of the story that I enjoyed. I just didn't like it as much as I had hoped to.