I am an avid reader and usually not prone to giving up on books. However, I had to struggle and force myself to stick with this one. I found this book to be juvenile in the extreme. Yes, the characters were young adults, however I don't believe it necessary to write the book in that style.

The events and supporting characters seemed so unrelated, they were almost happenstance. To have the reader believe that the characters would just walk off, spend the night, steal a car and drive to another city together just seemed incomprehensible to me. To say nothing of paying their way!

The repetitious phrasing, for example; "get to L.A." and "find Sophie Durango" was unnecessary and a real turn-off for me. If you don't have something to say, don't say anything, rather than prolong what I found to be a very poorly developed book. ( )

With only $342 in his pocket, 18-year-old Cat travels from Albuquerque to Los Angeles to find a girl. Not any girl – Sophie Durango, the girl he’s in love with, or at least he's dreaming of to be in love. He crosses Star, a vagabond girl from Utah, who renames him to Hunter and calls herself Grape. Together they embark on a bizarre journey across states, making more friends with Sir Will and his dog Delilah. Grape's influence is growing en determines Hunter's destination.

Hitchhiking, drugs selling, winning some money and losing all in Las Vegas, closing in on Grape, while having vivid memories on the love affair with Sophie Durango as well, Cat is kicked out of a casino and night club, is introduced to weed, the Pacific Ocean only to find out that love can be lost and found.

The narrative in Eoin C. Macken's Hunter and the Grape is raw, conversations overflowing from F-words and sexuality, while nowhere explicit sex is described or used to support the storyline. The book was more Young Adult oriented than expected. ( )

I remember when I first read the Outsiders,by S.E. Hinton . I was almost feverish with the lives and world of Ponyboy and Sodadpop. Later I discovered S.E. was a teenager herself when she began writing the story,based on her highshool.

I remember when I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and the ash-greyy desolate landscape my mind took on that colored everything for days after I closed the story.

Eoin Macken is the spiritual fusion of these two,and more. Eoin Macken is Eoin Macken,but Hinton/McCarthy are the two writers whose immersion most resembles Eoin.

Cat,who is or not Hunter is a walker. He is a blender. He is a get-alonger. When the going gets tough,he wants to get going,in a cool but low key way that won't draw attention,or ire,or difficulties. Hunter,who may or may not be Cat is a knight in shining armour. He is a dragon slayer with a serape and a cross brace of pistoleros. He is the Lover,the Prince,The Man with No Name. He was reared with codependency and aloneness and has the raw,tissue thin covering over his self image all teens have.

Grape,Sky,Sea,Air...Grape is. She just is,like the sky is,like a grape is. She is one of those rare good people who are the world's true survivors. The ones who can absorb any circumstance or change(even one of those that you know as they are happening that your life has just taken a different turn)and carry the scars,but only on the surface. The inside remains unchanged and whole. She is the kind of person you learn to wish for; as a friend,or sister,or wife, after you have been hurt.

The things that happen are sad,painfu,l un-surprisng,and inevitable. But they happen with the plasticity of hope that teens have,with the innate belief in their eventual destiny that all teens have, with tolerance and acceptance of the underdog. Even when they aren't allright,even as you're reading things going down, they(and we) are infused with a teflon like suspension of despair that I wish we all had. Suspension of despair-that is the real definition of hope.

Eoin has bone,sinew,muscle,and a little bit of magic dust as a writer. To Eoin C. Macken; thanks for a damn good story. Don't stop. ( )