Book: 24 Hours in Nowhere

I had high hopes for this one.  The book, 24 Hours in Nowhere, was written by the same author as Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, one of my two favorites on last year's Mark Twain Award nominee list.  This one, however, seems like it might have been rushed to publication.  In addition to some typographical errors, there are some loose ends in the tale that needed to be tied up to avoid fraying.  Additionally, the comparisons to Louis Sachar's Holes on the cover are highly misleading.  Other than occurring in a hot desert, there are no similarities with that novel.

From Goodreads:

When you come from Nowhere, can you ever really make it anywhere? Author Dusti Bowling (Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus) returns to the desert to create a gripping story about friendship, hope, and finding the power we all have within ourselves.​
 
Welcome to Nowhere, Arizona, the least livable town in the United States. For Gus, a bright 13-year-old with dreams of getting out and going to college, life there is made even worse by Bo Taylor, Nowhere’s biggest, baddest bully. When Bo tries to force Gus to eat a dangerously spiny cactus, Rossi Scott, one of the best racers in Nowhere, comes to his rescue—but in return she has to give Bo her prized dirt bike. Determined to buy it back, Gus agrees to go searching for gold in Dead Frenchman Mine, joined by his old friends Jessie Navarro and Matthew Dufort, and Rossi herself. As they hunt for treasure, narrowly surviving everything from cave-ins to mountain lions, they bond over shared stories of how hard life in Nowhere is—and they realize this adventure just may be their way out. 

The book was enjoyable enough in parts, but like so many, it ended up being just a series of hurdles for the characters to jump, never really building to a climax, but merely hopping toward one repeatedly.  The bookends of the storyline - the whole dirt bike premise - was merely that, and just seemed to lie flat in the end.  I'm really sorry that I didn't like this one more than I did, because the author had won me over quickly on her first novel.  Hopefully, she can redeem everything with future attempts.