What do readers think of Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson? Write your own review.

This book did not get interesting until about page 80, then it slowly built to a mesa; one of a few books I wouldn't pass on to another person I liked. The gist of the story was not something to build over 300 pages; it wasn't good enough for 150 pages. The writing was boring and I found myself scanning the text until another interesting occurrence appeared. It was a struggle to get through the book and I'm not happy that I made the effort.

As I left a late night play in San Francisco, I saw tattooed teenagers on skateboards just "hanging", smoking and doing whatever they do very late at night . Johnny and Jude came to mind. I shook my head with dismay as apparently life has not become much better with the current generation.

I had a hard time with the book. As I turned each page, I had hoped to find redemption but the characters all remained dysfunctional. The parents had no parenting skills at all.

On a positive note, the author will give the reader an insight into the lives of dysfunctional families in the eighties.. The characters were well developed as well.
Hard to relate to. However I do need to point out that I am in my mid-sixties!

"Ten Thousand Saints" centers around a group of down-on-their-luck teenagers and their dysfunctional extended families. Each of the characters, and indeed the entire book, lacks a sense of purpose. The adults in the story act primarily as grown-up teenagers and seem to be missing even the most basic parental instincts. Rather than provide their teens with appropriate guidance (followed up with appropriate discipline), the adults show little regard for providing familial structure.

Perhaps I was searching too hard for redemption in the story. The characters remain largely one-dimensional and unchanging at their core. As dysfunctional as the teenagers grow up in the story, there is little indication the cycle will be broken for the next generation.

Ten Thousand Saints is an interesting reflection of life in the 80's with multiple dysfunctional families and the issues they are dealing with. I thought the strongest issue dealt w/ was that of adoption. It started slow for me, but I was fully engaged by the end and cared for the characters.

This book was an informative read of dysfunctional families, drug use, skate boarding, hard rock bands, altered relationships, and attempts at change. Perhaps, this book would interest young adults. As a senior reader, I felt that it was a wasted read.

I have to be honest and say it took me awhile to get into this one. The first 50 pages were a real struggle. In the end, I'd have to say that I enjoyed it. That being said, I felt that the story meandered. There were jumps and skips and parts that possibly could have been omitted.

This book gives readers an insight into the lifestyle of teens in a big city during the 1980s. A slow start (difficulty relating) but once the characters were developed it became much more interesting. I enjoyed the way the lives of the characters were intertwined. My children were products of the 80's but growing up in the suburbs is very different than growing up in a big city.

I began reading Ten Thousand Saints with great hope. The opening two sentences -- "Is it dreamed?" Jude asked Teddy. "Or dreamt?" Beneath the stadium seats of the football field, on the last morning of 1987 and the last morning of Teddy's life, the two boys lay side by side, a pair of snow angels bundled in thrift-store parkas." -- grabbed me. But sadly, as I read further, the story kept losing me; it seemed overly wordy. I'm not saying it wasn't well written. But the subject matter -- the traumas of teen age boys in 1980s New York City -- simply didn't inspire me and it was a struggle to finish.