Rating: 
Summary: Hmmmm
Review: I have to say that I simply thought this book was ok. I didn't think it was great or awful, but I think I was expecting more. Everyone wrote such rave reviews for this book, that I kept waiting for something big to happen and before that did happen, I finished the book...i.e. I don't think anything that exciting ever happened. This book was very easy to read and is also fun to read if you are familiar with the New York City area. It has some interesting happenings throughout, but by the time I finished it, I was a little let down. I guess my only advice is that if it sounds interesting to you, give it a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than good
Review: Someone told me this was a good book. They were wrong - it was better than good. The story was original and the writing was excellent. I hear that the movie rights have been sold and that production begins this spring. I hope they do the book justice.
Rating:
Summary: I don't read many books, but I couldn't put this one down!
Review: This is one of the best, if not the best, book I've ever read!
As you can see from other people's reviews, the story centers around the night of goobye's for Monty Brogan, with his two close friends and his girlfriend.
The incredibly detailed, yet not overbearing, description that the author uses is amazing. The three main characters each have very distinct and individual personalities. The way the three close friends interact with each other is what really drives this story forward. You feel as though you've known these people for years, because of the author's great flashback scenes which help develop the charaters into living, breathing, people while you read the book.
The story has quite a few great twists, which leave you reeling, and plenty of interesting side characters to keep things fresh. The book simply does not get boring, or bogged down with any one character. While the main story focuses on Monty, the stories behind his two friends, Jacob and Frank, are equally as interesting. There is plenty here to keep you going.
I didn't have much free time to read, but I found myself not being able to wait to get home and read a little more. A very easy, but intersting and engaging read!
My few complaints about the book are definately overshadowed by the overall brilliance! I do wish the girlfriend, Naturelle, was a more developed character. I didn't feel as though she was a developed as his other two friends. Equal time and consideration was given to her and Monty's dog, Doyle.
Also, while I love the ending, the party at the club seemed very short. Quite a bit happened there, but felt like I missed something when reading it.
Very, very small complaints for such an excellent book!
I looked into the book, based on the fact that Edward Norton (one of the most amazing actors around) will be producing and starring in the film version. When I looked at the reviews, I knew I had to get it.
Buy this book immediately, and pass it on. This is a GREAT book!
Rating:
Summary: What a ride!
Review: This story just screams "What's gonna happen?" from the first page. What is Monty going to do with his last hours of freedom? How are the other charachters going to respond to him on their final night out? What's he gonna do with his dog, Doyle?! And most of all - how is going to come to terms with what he's done? I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the answers to these questions (although none of them were what I expected) and I closed the book feeling like I just went on one heck of a wild ride. In fact, I liked it so much I read it again! This will definitely go down as one of my favorite books!
Rating:
Summary: Best new book/writer-- give us more!!!
Review: I can only hope that David Benioff can write his next one with the same speed that I devoured his book. This was the best book I've read in ages, and I can't wait for the movie.Every reader will know these characters, will know these places and will know and understand the decisions between right, wrong, and maybe that face the book's main characters-- and that knowledge and familiarity is what makes this novel so spectaular. Congratulations to Mr. Benioff for writing a world-class novel. YV.
Rating:
Summary: Repression, insecurity, jealousy, failure,and wry humor
Review: This is a fine book. Benioff portrays an ecclectic assortment of characters whose personalities, and interconnections are distinctively New York. Where else would working class Irish, middle class Jews, Puerto Ricans, upper crust WASPS, and the Russian mob have reason to associate and become emmeshed in each others' lives? This is tale is also a reflection of the current age, with it's depiction of upward striving, class barriers, unfulfilled promise, ephemeral wealth, and self destructive tendancies. Benioff's metaphors are colorful, vivid, and thought provoking. Yet this is all depicted with the ironic, sardonic humor characteristic of New York. "The 25th Hour" is a splendid, very satisfying book. I savored it completely.
Rating: 
Summary: The new Jay McInerney???
Review: As a writer myself I almost hate to admit it, but this is a dman good novel. It's been classified as a crime novel, but its not really. It's more of a coming-of-age novel about three longtime friends, all of whom have their lives thrown into crisis when one of them is being sent up the river on a seven-year bit. The writing is sharp and thoughtful. The book has the feeling of catching a time and place so well that it may be remembered as a small classic. I see that David Benioff is being promoted in the same manner Jay McInerny was a couple decades back: pretty boy author catches the zeitgeist. Movie offers, etc. Benioff has real talent (maybe McInerney did too once upon a moon). I'm hoping Benioff has more dedication to his craft than McInerney did and that he doesn't get sucked up by the Hollywood machine. He could be a real interesting novelist worth keeping an eye on.
Rating:
Summary: Effective neo-noir character study
Review: I'm personally a big fan of crime/thriller writers like Jim Thompson and Dashiell Hammett and I think David Benioff's writing falls into the same league as these guys. The plot is not all that complicated, but Benioff paints a very realistic portrait of these characters. Indeed, I really enjoyed how Benioff used the third-person omniscient to get into each character's head. I won't rehash what the story is about, but I will say that it's a pretty satisfying and gritty NYC-based story. I like short books, but this felt a little too short -- thus I'm giving it four stars. I want to know what happens to Monty after the drive. Was that his real or imaginary future described at the end? Did somebody say "sequel"? SIDENOTE: Benioff recently sold a script entitled STAY for reportedly $1.8 million to Regency, a film production company -- the largest spec screenplay sale in recent history. That's the main reason why I wanted to read this. Interestingly enough, he re-uses a line of dialogue from this story in his script STAY.
Rating:
Summary: Wow. ('Nuff said.)
Review: The dialogue is exemplary, but that's not what makes this short novel so incredibly compelling. The setting, the characters and the dark humor are also beautifully written, but what sets this story head and shoulders above its contemporaries is that it is a good story, well told. Cliché? Perhaps, but after you read this (in a matter of hours, if you have any semblance of a soul) you, like I, will be clawing at the walls waiting for Benioff's next opus. I only hope that his follow-up is twice as long and just as good. Monty's final twenty-five hours before being launched irrevocably into a terrifying prison sentence, drives the reader though a rollercoaster of emotion, leading one to question "what if" over and over... This is not just a "there but for the grace of God go I" dalliance, this is an all-too-real, entrepreneurial New Yorker who grew up with a world of potential and influence at his fingertips who intentionally fell into the dreaded competency trap - he found something he was very good at, something very lucrative, something that gave him status and, unfortunately for him, illegal. The parallel action, detailing the resulting experiences of his closest friends, lends extraordinary realism and heart to a genre that, all too often, neglects to illustrate the full fluidity of humanity in all its visceral indulgence. This is not a morality story - Benioff doesn't try to explain his characters' motives, only their consequences and emerges as this year's best new novelist (in my humble opinion.) Read on - you will not be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: THESE ARE MY BOYS
Review: Halfway thru I thought, uh huh, these are my boys, I grew up with guys like this, I know them. But it doesn't matter if your from Brooklyn or Arkansas or Katmandoo, you know these guys. I wanted to protect Jacob. I wanted to smack Frank Slattery. And I wanted to find Montgomery Brogan when he was young and tell him to take a different path. When a book makes you care this much, it must be good.
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