Last Night I sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Zach is eighteen. He is bright and articulate. He's also an alcoholic and in rehab instead of high school, but he doesn't remember how he got there. He's not sure he wants to remember. Something bad must have happened. Something really, really bad. Remembering sucks and being alive - well, what's up with that? 

I have it in my head that when we're born, God writes things down on our hearts. See, on some people's hearts he writes Happy and on some people's hearts he writes Sad and on some people's hearts he writes Crazy on some people's hearts he writes Genius and on some people's hearts he writes Angry and on some people's hearts he writes Winner and on some people's hearts he writes Loser. It's all like a game to him. Him.God. And it's all pretty much random. He takes out his pen and starts writing on our blank hearts. When it came to my turn, he wrote Sad. I don't like God very much. Apparently he doesn't like me very much either.

A book group choice and I am so glad I have found this author and read this book.  Don't you just love finding authors that you have never before heard of and then just knowing that you will like anything they write.

I loved this authors writing style.  It flowed very smoothly for what was a rough topic.  He sucked me in from the start and I was making all sorts of guesses as to what Zach was trying to forget. 

The author made me relate to Zach and a lot of the other characters and these are troubled characters that you really don't want to relate to!  Should it worry me that I felt a sense of myself in a teenage male with mental and alcohol problems, or is the author just very good at what he does!!??

I thought this would definitely be a 5 out of 5 for me BUT the ending was slightly happily ever after for my taste and the event that Zach was trying to forget was eventually a bit rushed in the telling.  I also thought it wasn't as dramatic as the whole book was leading up to or warranting, so I dropped a point for this.

Still a great, absorbing read and an author I will now be seeking out.