Kiss the Girls

Throughout elementary school and middle school I was a bit of a book worm. I read anything. Hard copy or paper back, it didn’t bother me. If the book had a cover, I read it. Each week I went to the book store with my mom and bought books. The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton was one of my favorite reads and I’ve read it about 12 times.

The minute I stepped into my first class in ninth grade, reading all of a sudden became “un-cool”. It was like the nerdy, book-wormy kid inside of me died. It wasn’t until 10th grade that I started reading again but not by choice.

My father realized that I wasn’t reading anymore and he took action. “Benjamin! he would say. If you don’t start reading you’re grounded!” Of course, being the “know-it-all” wise ass that I was, my fathers words went in one ear and out the other. One Friday afternoon I came home from school expecting to go out with my friends that night. My father came into my room told me I was grounded and threw a book at me.

The book Kiss the Girls, is the second of the Alex Cross series. It is a psychological thriller by James Patterson and is about a detective, Alex Cross and his quest in finding his kidnapped niece but also hunting down two serial killers.

This book has had the most impact on me so far in life. Patterson’s use of short chapters make this book readable for anyone. The print is large so there aren’t too many words on the pages. He ties the beginning of the story and the end in a very interesting way. In the opening pages, Cross tries to save a young boy who has attempted suicide who eventually dies in his arms outside the hospital. Patterson then connects this to the end with Cross’s determination to find the serial killers. Similar to the other Cross books, humor is a major aspect. The humor is easy to understand and it feels natural.

The main reason why I love this book so much is that Patterson uses two different points of view. Whenever Alex Cross is the main character, the point of view is in the first person. You think what Cross is thinking and you feel what he is feeling. This makes Cross very relatable especially when he talks about love. The point of view switches to third-person omniscient whenever the main characters are the serial killers. This change is essential because if the first person view was consistent throughout the story, you won’t be able to understand how crazy these killers really are.

During my hiatus from reading I developed this fixed notion that all books took a while to get into and aren’t relatable. After reading Kiss the Girls my opinion about reading and books changed. The clever beginning of the story was so quick and vivid that I could see it in my mind. I was hooked from then on. It took me about a day and a half to finish the book and I think I skipped a few meals beccause it was so good.

A movie was made in 1997 starring Morgan Freeman.

Here’s all the Alex Cross books in the series.

I would like to thank James Patterson for opening my eyes to a new style of writing that was unfamiliar to me prior to reading his novels. I have read almost all of the books in the Alex Cross series and each one if as good as the one before ot. I guess I should also thank my dad for forcing me to read.