Book Review: Kilometer 99 by Tyler McMahon

Kilometer 99: A Novel by Tyler McMahon
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Paperback Release Date: June 17, 2014
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Malia needs to leave El Salvador. A surfer and aspiring engineer, she came to Central America as a Peace Corps volunteer and fell in love with Ben. Malia’s past year has been perfect: her weeks spent building a much-needed aqueduct in the countryside, and her weekends spent with Ben, surfing point-breaks in the nearby port city of La Libertad. Suddenly, a major earthquake devastates the country and brings an abrupt end to her work. Ben and Malia decide to move on.
Now free of obligations, they have an old car, a wad of cash, surfboards, and rough plans for an epic trip through South America. Just as they’re about to say goodbye to their gritty and beloved Salvadoran beach town, a mysterious American surfer known only as Pelochucho shows up―spouting grandiose plans and persuading them to stay.
Days become weeks; documents go missing; money gets tight. Suddenly, Ben and Malia can’t leave. Caught between bizarre real estate offers, suspect drug deals, and internal jealousies, this unlikely band of surfers, aid-workers, and opportunists all struggle to find their way through a fallen world.

I chose Kilometer 99 because I loved Tyler McMahon’s debut novel How the Mistakes Were Made. Unfortunately, McMahon is suffering from a severe case of sophomore slump. I tried so hard to enjoy this book but the most part, I just didn’t. There was barely any character development. Even though I found Malia and Ben largely unlikable, that wasn’t my problem with them. I can like a book even if I don’t like any of the characters. My problem was that I didn’t have any background on them at all. The novel’s setting wasn’t described very well either. Ben and Malia spend a lot of time at the hotel where they are living but I didn’t know anything about what the hotel looked like or how it was set up. The owner Kristy would talk to them from the kitchen while they were outside. It was confusing and I would have like to have had a mental picture of it in my mind.

The plot was supposed to be suspenseful and thrilling. Who is Pelochucho? Is he really who he says he is? I was interested in finding out what his deal was but not so much that I couldn’t put the book down. If I were you, I’d skip this one and hope that McMahon’s next book is as good as his first.

(I received a complementary copy of this book for review.)