What do readers think of Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson? Write your own review.

I have to be honest and say it took me awhile to get into this one. The first 50 pages were a real struggle. In the end, I'd have to say that I enjoyed it. That being said, I felt that the story meandered. There were jumps and skips and parts that possibly could have been omitted.

When I started this book I didn't realize I would lose a good three days in New York in the 80's.characters hold you and won't let go. A great story about people and families lost and trying to find something to hold on to. This book will suck you in! Great debut!

I began reading Ten Thousand Saints with great hope. The opening two sentences -- "Is it dreamed?" Jude asked Teddy. "Or dreamt?" Beneath the stadium seats of the football field, on the last morning of 1987 and the last morning of Teddy's life, the two boys lay side by side, a pair of snow angels bundled in thrift-store parkas." -- grabbed me. But sadly, as I read further, the story kept losing me; it seemed overly wordy. I'm not saying it wasn't well written. But the subject matter -- the traumas of teen age boys in 1980s New York City -- simply didn't inspire me and it was a struggle to finish.

This book is very well written, but it would be more interesting to someone who is interested in learning about the punk-rock era of the 80s, or re-living it. It would be a very scary book for parents of kids soon to be the age of the characters in the book, late high schoolers. Peer pressure leads to indiscriminate sexual experiments and drugs abound, as do any other means of getting high, like sniffing glue, paint cans, etc. It is about more than that, though. It is about young people learning about love and doing what they think is the right thing. It is about family relationships, parent to kids, brother to brother. It wasn't really my cup of tea, (I am 60) but a good book anyway, hence the 4 stars.

Eleanor Henderson gives a well written snap shot of New York City in the late 1980's. It's not the rags to riches, or the literary scene, it is the raw, punk-rock underbelly of the city. The characters are not perfect, often making bad choices, but they are believable and memorable. The story unfolds and the characters gain depth as they all try to figure out how to deal with each other and how to do what is right. I enjoyed it!