Title: 13/13/13
Author: Dakota Umlauf
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 9781984511966
Pages: 174
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Jennifer Weiss

Read Book Review

Tyrone Christos is a young boy on the verge of his teenage years who considers himself rather unlucky and stuck in the shadow of his father Alax, a police officer everyone seems to love. Not to mention he is hopelessly in love with the beautiful Red Jack. Everything seems to be normal until Tyrone discovers his family is hiding a deep dark secret. On the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month of the thirteen year, everything changes for Tyrone. Is happily ever after a good thing?

13/13/13 is an interesting concept of the calendar year getting an extra month and sending the world into pandemonium. This novel is completely unpredictable. You never know what direction the story will take, and it keeps you guessing. There are a lot of elements which helps readers see or hear what is happening in this story, such as CRASH or BOOM. The onomatopoeia gives a certain sensory quality to the book that readers may not find anywhere else. Throughout the novel, readers see a beautiful friendship between Tyrone and Red that continues to get deeper as they encounter different situations together. Readers see a friendship that can withstand anything and provides a foundation of what true friendship should be.

There are some comics in with the story to help the audience picture what the author is trying to tell us, but some may not be suitable for younger readers as there are allusions to nudity. What can get confusing is the numbers at the beginning of some chapters, some readers could get caught up on what do they mean, and wonder why they are there. Umlauf includes a lot of internal dialogue which does help to get inside the reader’s head, but it can get confusing when there is internal dialogue mixed in with a flashback. One could imagine this story being an animated show on a channel like Comedy Central or Adult Swim. The characters are animated and very reactive to different situations, again adding to the feeling that one can see or hear what is happening during the storytelling process.

If you enjoy a coming of age story filled with action and adventure, then 13/13/13 by Dakota Umlauf is the right book for you. It has humor, suspense, action, maybe even a smidge of romance, what more could a reader want in a book? It is a good book to read, as adult and some young adult readers would enjoy the book.