Book Review- Vodnik by Bryce Moore (2012)

Here it is. The review that many of you have been waiting for since January.
Since I already gave you a summary of the book in my earlier post Vodnik (Upcoming Novel), I think I'll skip right down to what I thought of the book that I've been hearing about on and off for the past six months.
I've read books by authors that try to be funny and fail, but Bryce Moore does it almost without any effort. Tomas, the main character, watched movies constantly before moving to Slovakia, so some movie quotes are expected. The characterization was very well done, I found myself caring for almost all of the characters in the book without noticing. He makes you feel like you are a part of these character's lives, which is something that only a few other authors I've read have been able to successfully do.
I knew there was going to be some racism in this book, but I didn't expect it to get quite to the level that it did in Vodnik. What makes me sad isn't that the racism in the book is so heavy, but that that's actually how they treat Roma (Gypsies) in Slovakia. Tomas struggles against the sudden hatred that he didn't encounter back in the States.
The other thing I didn't expect is the level of complexity in this book. Tomas was juggling four or five different problems throughout the plot, but Bryce Moore wraps them all up nicely in the end without getting tongue-tied like other authors that try the same thing.
The villain, called by the characters The Vodnik, is the most interesting character out of all of them. I'll try not to give any spoilers, but the Vodnik is a mischievous water spirit that drowns children in Slovak folklore. He's friendly, but at the same time he's demanding and violent. He isn't evil because of some deep-seated psychological hatred, that's just the way he is.
Before I continue on to rate the book, I've got to explain how I'm going to rate books from now on. Before I used a sort of grade-percentage type system, but to make things easier I think I'll go to the standard five-star rating system used by pretty much everybody else. I'll keep giving it a grade, but the percentage is gone.
Considering all of the elements mentioned above, along with the quality of the writing (which was quite good), Vodnik is easily four stars, probably closer to four and a half. That's a B+ for you people that liked the old grading system (if there were any).
Very good, especially for a first novel. Highly recommended.