A book review after a long time missing

Small Steps by Louis Sachar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
*Look ma, no spoilers!*

This is a well-written book. After I read Holes which I thought was amazing and practically perfect, I couldn't dare to read anything else that Sachar had written for fear of disappointment. How could he write anything as perfect as Holes?
Then this book came out, and since it was some of the same characters from Holes, I read it. First of all, it's good; it's worth your time to read. And if it happens that you don't like the magical realism of Holes, this is straight realistic fiction. It does have a plot line that you probably have seen before: well-meaning protagonist gets into trouble and misunderstanding because of a too-clever, shady friend.

It also has elements of striving to meet and be friends with someone normally considered "out of their league."

Again, I enjoyed reading the book, and it didn't feel like a wound for being so much less than Holes as I was afraid some of Sachar's previous books would have been. The conflicts and obstacles faced by the protagonist keep the reader turning the pages. But Small Steps does weigh in as a lesser book than Holes.
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