Forever Is Over - Calvin Wade

Forever Is Over is one of those books that begins at the end.

We find out right from the outset that Richie has cancer and he's dying but rewind back to his childhood and that's where the story starts.

Told in an almost journal like way, we follow Richie from his teenage years through to adulthood and we meet a wide variety of characters. Each chapter is a story within the main story from a different character and this a great way to get to know each of them and find out more about their lives and share their thoughts.

Despite the fact that the ending is known to the reader, the story in the middle is a wonderful and meandrous one that will bring back memories if you were growing up in the 70's and 80's. A simple story that is many-faceted and will have you laughing out loud one minute and crying the next.

This book has it all. There's murder, gambling addiction, first-love, sibling rivalry and even football! What more could you possibly want?

Calvin Wade is a gifted writer who has a great ability to make all of his characters so believable you could almost touch them, which for me meant that I was fully immersed in their lives and was living every high and low with them. My only criticism, and it really is a small one, is that I felt it was just a little bit too long and wordy in parts. There were a few places where less could have been more. That said I still enjoyed this book immensely and I would highly recommend it to everyone who likes to lose themselves in an excellent, well written and thought provoking book.