One of the best authors I’ve read, John Hart has again written a book to win me over. I feared this might be more like his Johnny Merriman books, which seemed to be experiments that didn’t work for me. But now, with THE UNWILLING, he is back.

The story takes place in the 1970s, during the Vietnam war. There were three brothers: one was drafted and died in Vietnam; another, Jason, enlisted, served three tours, came home addicted to heroin, and served time in jail; and the youngest, Gibby, is a senior in high school and determined to help Jason. And, then, there are their parents: the quite strange and unnatural mother, who considers both of her older sons to be dead, treats Gibby (a childish name) like a child, and is rarely part of the story; and the father, a police detective, who seems less unnatural but has also given up on Jason.

On the one hand, this is a coming-of-age book. That is, many parts of it are devoted to Gibby and his friends as they deal with their teenage anxieties. But it is his wish to help his brother that propels the story.

On the other hand is all the violence. Much of it is VIOLENCE in caps, so much violence that it gets tedious, and I found myself skimming some of these paragraphs.

And there are the hard-to-believe parts with “X" and his dominion over the prison, including the warden, guards, and other prisoners. I like to believe in characters even in fiction.

All in all, THE UNWILLING is good. But Hart goes too far with the violence this time. Also, I would have preferred a storyline that did not revolve around the unbelievable "X."