What do readers think of Crazy Blood by T. Jefferson Parker? Write your own review.

In spite of my interest in skiing, this book fell short, in my opinion. Reminiscent of a bad ski movie, the main character, Wylie returns to his home town and challenges his childhood rival in the upcoming ski competition. I found the characters shallow, and didn't care too much about what would happen to them. About 175 pages in, the plot picks up and gets more interesting. Most readers would not give a book that much of a chance.

Years ago T. Jefferson Parker was a favorite of mine, and not having read his books for some time, I was looking forward to Crazy Blood. I liked the method he applied to begin the book by using a character in the first person tell her story and then continuing that method throughout the book. However, I was disappointed as I read. There was much description about the skiing, terrain and associated aspects of the sport—and I did appreciate the amount of research that was done. But having little interest in skiing and boarding, I become bored quickly. There were too many subplots that I had to track. Possibly a winter sport enthusiast would get more out of the book than I did.

I am not at all a fan of snow skiing, so the inordinate amount of space devoted to detailed descriptions of the mountains, ski runs and the sports involved in general made for a big yawn for me in reading this book. If I skip over those things and just look at the story itself, I reluctantly have to say it was pretty predictable with the characters all divided into good v. evil. I have enjoyed other books by T. Jefferson Parker and was disappointed I wasn't a real fan of this one. Kudos, though, for all the deep research done on snowboarding and all forms of skiing.... it was quite extensive and impressive.

Whenever I start a new novel I look forward to meeting characters I would love to have as friends. In Crazy Blood, I could find not one person I would love to meet for hot chocolate. The only hope I saw was brother Robert, but he exited the plot early. I had hope for Wylie's sisters and his girlfriend. Then they turned out to be selfish bobbleheads. Wylie's half-brother Skye and his grandfather Adam put up barriers to Wylie's ambitions. The climax focuses on the BIG SKI RACE, but it too disappoints. The ending is predictable and belongs in an afternoon soap opera. I cannot recommend.