I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain by Will Walton

From Goodreads,

"How do you deal with a hole in your life?

Do you grieve?

Do you drink?

Do you make out with your best friend?

Do you turn to poets and pop songs?

Do you question everything?

Do you lash out?

Do you turn the lashing inward?

If you're Avery, you do all of these things. And you write it all down in an attempt to understand what's happened -- and is happening -- to you.

I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain is an astonishing novel about navigating death and navigating life, at a time when the only map you have is the one you can draw for yourself."

Goodreads - I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain

I purchase a LOT of my books through Scholastic.  I get a flat rate, no tax, and free shipping.  Since I had purchased so much, I earned free money to spend on books.  I just searched through by price and ended up stumbling across this book.  After reading the synopsis I was convinced this was a book I would enjoy.  Needless to say, I'm glad I'm finished with it because it was a huge disappointment.

I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain is told by Avery who is recovering from an injury after a car accident.  The book alternates between stories as Avery tries to deal with the past and the present of what is happening and has happened in his life.  The present sections of the book deal with Avery at his grandpal's funeral, while the past sections deal with the events leading up to his death including his mother and grandpal's alcoholism.

I don't have a lot of positive things to say about this book sadly.  The whole concept of this book is great, but the execution of this book was absolutely terrible.  The book bounced around.  I despised the fact that in a single chapter the story went from being in the present, to being in the actual current present of grandpal's funeral, then back to the present.  It was absolutely confusing to keep up with.  There were multiple times that I was lost in the book.  I think that if Walton would have written the book to be from beginning to end and in order it would have been more enjoyable.  More details could have been included and the reader wouldn't have to sort and figure out what was happening.

Another complaint that I have with this book is that it is marketed as a novel and as poetry.  This book was honestly neither.  I really thought that there would be more poetry in it.  But the "poetry" that was in the book wasn't poetry at all.  It was just a hodge podge of words and thoughts made by Avery.  A lot of the poetry went along with what was happening in the book, but it was completely confusing and took a lot to decipher.

If you enjoy analyzing and deciphering literature then this is definitely the book for you.  It was very scattered and scrambled, making it hard to read.  I give this 1 star.