Alexis
2.5 if I could. I liked the premise and overall storyline, but the writing style itself didn't quite do it for me.
I felt like (except for one or two short scenes) nothing really started picking up until about page 300, and at that point I was so disenchanted with the story that it didn't save it for me. Dialogue felt very flat throughout, most of the characters seemed very one-dimensional to me, and I just couldn't stay engaged. This book received so many positive reviews, I'm bummed that I couldn't find the same pull from it.
A refreshing, quick-paced, witty, and moving work by new author Meredith Tate. With relate-able characters and a plot that draws you in from page one, it's a page-turner that's nearly impossible to put down. Throughout the book I found myself connecting with both main characters and some of the sub-characters on various levels, which made the journey and ending both heartbreaking and heartwarming, bittersweet and contenting. Congrats on a wonderful début!
I enjoyed a great many of the ideas in the book but unfortunately the writing style killed it for me. I could understand the writing from the child's perspective and his train of thought if it was only his that was written like that, but the adults' portions were equally as “stream of consciousness” for most of the book.
Bummed about this read. Was it my own fault for misunderstanding the description of the book? Sure, perhaps. I fully anticipated that this book had an autobiographical component in the sense that the book wold utilize the author's first-hand experiences out in the world exploring nightscapes and dark skies, and I even looked forward to this, thinking it would be used in conjunction with and to support how “our relationship with darkness and the night sky changed over time” (from the description). What I didn't anticipate was how much of these stories were going to have tenuous tangential connections to nightscapes and dark skies with some historical and folk-lore information mixed in, many passages of which had a brief passing connection to night or darkness.
The disjunct writing style of moving to a new topic for a few paragraphs or an anecdotal story and then suddenly returning to the previous one made it difficult for me to stay engaged, as well.
Giving this two stars instead of one for the handful of passages that had some interesting folklore or historical information.
I liked the overall premise of the book, and in particular I enjoyed the plot for the first third to half of the book. The writing felt a bit inconsistent, though, both with style and some of the grammatical approaches to Henry's speech. Overall not a bad book.
If it hadn't been for situational context and the names for each character, I'd have had no idea who was who; it felt like every character had the same voice. This book was disappointingly bland in the sense that, for me, it brought no deeper look into such an awful occurrence as school shootings beyond scratching the surface of such an event. Would not recommend this book.
I've been jonesing for a great creepy read for a while that I haven't previously read and I found it in this book! I was hooked throughout, and thoroughly enjoyed the pacing, plot, and atmosphere. A few moments here and there felt like a little bit of a stretch to keep the plot cohesive but overall a great read!
Though I enjoyed the overall premise and plot, the writing itself irked me from time to time throughout, and the culprit was easily figured out from the get-go.
When I was first looking at this book, it was at an elementary school book fair on the adult table. After reading the back and seeing the emphasis on the romance aspect of the book, I decided not to buy it. The next time the book fair was back, it was buy 1 get 1 free, so I figured “why not?”.
I'm so glad I bought it.
I'm not a huge fan of novels that focus solely on romance with little other plot line, and turns out this book wasn't one of those novels. The author does a spectacular job of creating this world with refreshing descriptions without overdoing it. The storyline is fairly quick-paced and never, in my opinion, gets dull. Though there is an emphasis on an intense romance later in the book that is an extremely important aspect of the book to create the given ending, it does not feel like it overpowers the other things going on.
One thing I'll admit is I'm glad I read some of the reviews first, solely because I was given a heads up about the changing between times/story lines, so with that in mind I was more easily able to keep the alternate story line in mind throughout the main plot.
I feel like this review is not as clear as I wish I could make it but the best I can say is to give this book a shot. Definitely will be reading again in the future and will recommend to friends.