Book Review: Recipe for Hate

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to preview yet another YA novel. This one, Recipe for Hate by Warren Kinsella, will be published December 5, 2017.

Because it is set in and around Portland, Maine, which was a favorite vacation spot of mine for 10 years and is where my husband and I met the son we adopted, I really wanted to like this more than I ended up doing. I think it's because, as far as storytelling goes, the setting overpowered the narrative. While the plot could have happened anywhere, Kinsella made Portland practically one of the characters. I would feel much more comfortable recommending this to my high school readers if I didn't think they'd be bored by all of the setting descriptions interrupting the flow of the story.

Other than that, though, when I could downplay the interference of setting descriptions, the story itself was compelling. Part cultural history, part murder mystery, Recipe for Hate helps today's readers understand the punk rock movement and see that the racism of neo-Nazis has been around for a while.

I required a bit of suspension-of-disbelief with the main character X as the hero.  As a character, X was part The Outsiders and part Fonzie from Happy Days -- a tough underdog who was feared and revered by his peers and adults alike. The coincidences toward the end, of the punks using their acquaintances with bikers as allies and the police choosing to apply the law where it benefitted them, added to the surreal impossibilities of this being a realistic and not hyperbolic tale.

Readers will relate to the way the teens in this book think and are thought about by adults. They will be interested in reading how Kinsella describes the murders, the friendships, and kidnapping. This is where Kinsella's attention to detail allows readers' creative imaginations to flow - and Kinsella writes some great descriptive images. Unfortunately, then, the fact that this is all taking place in Maine intrudes on the narrative progression. I understood the importance of the plot occurring in "Small Town, USA." As a reader, though, I needed to know why it was so important that it happened in Portland. A map of Portland on the end pages would have been more useful, i.e., less intrusive, than precise details of streets in Portland.

As I said, I really liked the premise of the story  - I just wish I hadn't been grounded to Portland or encountered a demigod-like X. (p.s. - I'm still not sure why the book is entitled Recipe for Hate.)