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

Oh, this is a depressing book. Melancholy. Tragic. And bleak. The story will grab some dark place of your soul and not let go. Eventually, there is hope and redemption, but it is a deeply sorrowful read to get to that point.

That said, it really is an extraordinary book.

Written by Eleanor Henderson, this is the story of Jude, whom we meet on his 16th birthday, and Teddy, 15, who are best friends living in a small college town in Vermont in the late 1980s. They both come from tragically dysfunctional families. Teddy's father is dead; his mother disappears, leaving him all alone. Jude's parents are divorced; his mother is barely making ends meet as a glassblower artist, while his dad, who lives in New York City's crime-infested Lower East Side, is an upscale drug dealer. Both boys are into drugs and huffing. Teddy dies, which is not a spoiler because the author gives away this eventual plot line in the second sentence of the book. Jude copes by moving to New York to live with his dad and to find Teddy's half-brother, Johnny, a tattoo artist and hardcore punk musician. Jude also finds a friend in Eliza, the trust-fund daughter of his father's girlfriend. But Teddy left them all a big secret, which is revealed soon enough, and it becomes a burden that nearly destroys Jude, Johnny, and Eliza.

The setting is raw, the characters are rough, and like the music they listen to and play, the plot is hardcore.

While this could be described as a coming-of-age story, it's so much more than that because Jude had been living such a loveless life without any of the boundaries parents typically set. It's more a coming-into-the-world story as Jude learns how to live in a way that is not self-destructive.

Ultimately, the dark, melancholic story becomes one of hope and redemption, but the danger is that the journey there is so somber and truly sad that many readers will give up just to exit this gloomy and despondent place. If you start the book, do finish it. It's so worth it.

This book is a look at the 1980’s in New York’s East Village from the perspective of a close-knit group of teens - a portrait of modern age and the struggles that unite or divide generations. Moving back and forth between Vermont and New York City, Ten Thousand Saints is a story of a frazzled bunch of family members that were brought together by Teddy’s sudden death due to an overdose, then carried along in anticipation of the birth of his child. AIDS, homelessness, gentrification, parenthood, adoption, and drug use are among the many topics covered in the book.

Rather lengthy and repetitive at times, this book took patience on my part to get through it. The hardcore punk rock music venues and the physical violence between some of these musicians got a little tedious. The author could have been pared it down and still sustained the story. The characters in this book have been compared to those in a Wally Lamb book – alive, familiar and all too human. Even though the dialogue was well done, in my opinion these characters were not that likable. I pitied them, but it was hard to really like them. In other words, I probably never will remember their names after the “read” is done like I do that of Scout from “How to Kill a Mockingbird.” Highly publicized by other reviewers as a coming-of-age novel; there are much better choices.

I highly anticipated this novel but once I started it I was disappointed as it is mediocre at best.

This book did not get interesting until about page 80, then it slowly built to a mesa; one of a few books I wouldn't pass on to another person I liked. The gist of the story was not something to build over 300 pages; it wasn't good enough for 150 pages. The writing was boring and I found myself scanning the text until another interesting occurrence appeared. It was a struggle to get through the book and I'm not happy that I made the effort.

As I left a late night play in San Francisco, I saw tattooed teenagers on skateboards just "hanging", smoking and doing whatever they do very late at night . Johnny and Jude came to mind. I shook my head with dismay as apparently life has not become much better with the current generation.

I had a hard time with the book. As I turned each page, I had hoped to find redemption but the characters all remained dysfunctional. The parents had no parenting skills at all.

On a positive note, the author will give the reader an insight into the lives of dysfunctional families in the eighties.. The characters were well developed as well.
Hard to relate to. However I do need to point out that I am in my mid-sixties!

"Ten Thousand Saints" centers around a group of down-on-their-luck teenagers and their dysfunctional extended families. Each of the characters, and indeed the entire book, lacks a sense of purpose. The adults in the story act primarily as grown-up teenagers and seem to be missing even the most basic parental instincts. Rather than provide their teens with appropriate guidance (followed up with appropriate discipline), the adults show little regard for providing familial structure.

Perhaps I was searching too hard for redemption in the story. The characters remain largely one-dimensional and unchanging at their core. As dysfunctional as the teenagers grow up in the story, there is little indication the cycle will be broken for the next generation.

I forced myself to finish this book. The characters all seemed flat--they seem to pass through life on destructive paths and never really moved beyond their dreary existence. Everyone seemed to exist on drugs and violence with no redemption anywhere in the book.

I raised my children during the '80s and I don't remember the world around us being so dysfuncional. I could not finish the book. Perhaps a younger readership would enjoy it more.