The Wanderer

This book was fine. It was well-written, and a lot of characters were fleshed out nicely, from the town sheriff to the high school quarterback to the waitress at the diner. Rather than centering on any one relationship, The Wanderer is more of a story about an entire town and the subtle ways everyone is affected by the titular character. It's a little bit whodunit, a little bit romance, a little bit Friday Night Lights. My one complaint is the treatment of the one character of color.

loc 3472: “True,” Eve said. “Okay, tell me more about this guy.”
“Well, he's African-American. Mostly.”
“Mostly? Does that mean he's black?”
“Latte,” she said. “He's also Native American, lots of different European and Caribbean.” And then she smiled. “He's very beautiful.”

I almost threw my Kindle out the window. Calling someone “latte” is ridiculous. “Latte” as a racial identifier is not a thing. Maybe it's how white folks talk about POC and think they're being complimentary, I don't know. But this (and it happens a couple other times) almost made me put down the book entirely. Every time I think about this passage, I roll my eyes and think about chucking this thing out the window again, just to make myself feel better.

Other than that though, this book is fine to read on a rainy day.