I wanted to start off by saying, this is my very first book review so if it sucks, I'm sorry. But I'm doing it anyway. SPOILER ALERT AHEAD.
Here we go-My very first book review.
I admit when I first started reading it, I had a hard time relating to the main character, Radley. Not because she comes from a well off family or because of her trip to Haiti, but because I didn't feel a connection. I find it difficult to follow a character on their journey when I don't have grounds of rooting for them right off the bat. But I decided to keep going anyway.
As the story goes on, I realize the protaganist doesn't have much standing in her way. The United States are in complete chaos, you need the correct paperwork to cross state lines and there are raids going on left and right. And yet, she's not stopped by a single officer, not arrested even once, (even though she crosses both state lines and into Canada without the paperwork.)
Radley doesn't encounter a lot of resistance on her journey, which isn't a terrible thing if I cared a lot about her finding her parents, SPOILER they're already dead before she leaves Haiti to come home, but I just don't feel that need to find out what their fate is. I assumed from the beginning that they were dead already. But maybe that's just me.
For the first third of the novel, it's the same thing over and over; she find shelter somewhere along the trail, sleeps for the night, goes dumpster diving for food and then the cycle repeats all the way until she meets her 'sidekick' I suppose I'll nickname her.
She meets up with another character about a third of the way through which she spends the majority of time with for the rest of the novel. This girl is 19 (I'm pretty sure anyway) and she's had a rough past and she doesn't like divulging a lot of backstory, which I did find interesting, because I did feel the need to know about what happened to her.
I must admit the only really exciting part that snatched up my attention was halfway through when Radley and her companion are walking along the road when they're approached by a man in a car. He offers shelter, a hot shower and all the food they can eat, and Celia refuses, dragging Radley along to continue. The man flips the bird and drives away. Celia then tells us she was raped on her way home from work only a month or so before and she could tell the man was hoping for the same kind of experience with the two of them.
And the rest of the novel is spent in southern Canada where they hunker down in an abandoned schoolhouse and try and survive. They are stealing vegetables from a garden only a little ways away, and the woman inside the house gives them food and clothing and two chickens to eat the eggs every day.
When Radley finds out it's safe to return to the states, she goes home to find it in complete disarray. Almost everything has been stolen and she meets with a kid who lived across the street from her and he tells her the grisly fate of her parents and gives her her mother's wallet which was strewn in the street after her parents were gunned down by a few kids at the beginning of the social collapse.
The two of them, realizing they don't have anywhere else to go, head back up to the schoolhouse where Celia delivers a baby girl and they all live happily ever after.
I wish this story had some more pushback on the protagonist, only because it would have held my attention far better than it did. I like the concept, but the story was a bit weak in my opinion. I did however like the writing style because it got to the point, there was very little description, just enough to get a picture in my mind, and then it got on with it, as monotinous as it was.
But over all, I think this was a tender story of a girl who learns to take care of herself instead of relying on her parents for everything, which she said she did in the past. A good survival story, but I wish there was more actual conflict.
And there you have it, my first book review.
Now I'm starting a book called Proof of Forever by Lexa Hillyer, here's a link to the Goodreads page, and once I'm done reading it, I'll write another review.
Thanks for reading!
Love, Mackenzie
Here we go-My very first book review.
I admit when I first started reading it, I had a hard time relating to the main character, Radley. Not because she comes from a well off family or because of her trip to Haiti, but because I didn't feel a connection. I find it difficult to follow a character on their journey when I don't have grounds of rooting for them right off the bat. But I decided to keep going anyway.
As the story goes on, I realize the protaganist doesn't have much standing in her way. The United States are in complete chaos, you need the correct paperwork to cross state lines and there are raids going on left and right. And yet, she's not stopped by a single officer, not arrested even once, (even though she crosses both state lines and into Canada without the paperwork.)
Radley doesn't encounter a lot of resistance on her journey, which isn't a terrible thing if I cared a lot about her finding her parents, SPOILER they're already dead before she leaves Haiti to come home, but I just don't feel that need to find out what their fate is. I assumed from the beginning that they were dead already. But maybe that's just me.
For the first third of the novel, it's the same thing over and over; she find shelter somewhere along the trail, sleeps for the night, goes dumpster diving for food and then the cycle repeats all the way until she meets her 'sidekick' I suppose I'll nickname her.
She meets up with another character about a third of the way through which she spends the majority of time with for the rest of the novel. This girl is 19 (I'm pretty sure anyway) and she's had a rough past and she doesn't like divulging a lot of backstory, which I did find interesting, because I did feel the need to know about what happened to her.
I must admit the only really exciting part that snatched up my attention was halfway through when Radley and her companion are walking along the road when they're approached by a man in a car. He offers shelter, a hot shower and all the food they can eat, and Celia refuses, dragging Radley along to continue. The man flips the bird and drives away. Celia then tells us she was raped on her way home from work only a month or so before and she could tell the man was hoping for the same kind of experience with the two of them.
And the rest of the novel is spent in southern Canada where they hunker down in an abandoned schoolhouse and try and survive. They are stealing vegetables from a garden only a little ways away, and the woman inside the house gives them food and clothing and two chickens to eat the eggs every day.
When Radley finds out it's safe to return to the states, she goes home to find it in complete disarray. Almost everything has been stolen and she meets with a kid who lived across the street from her and he tells her the grisly fate of her parents and gives her her mother's wallet which was strewn in the street after her parents were gunned down by a few kids at the beginning of the social collapse.
The two of them, realizing they don't have anywhere else to go, head back up to the schoolhouse where Celia delivers a baby girl and they all live happily ever after.
I wish this story had some more pushback on the protagonist, only because it would have held my attention far better than it did. I like the concept, but the story was a bit weak in my opinion. I did however like the writing style because it got to the point, there was very little description, just enough to get a picture in my mind, and then it got on with it, as monotinous as it was.
But over all, I think this was a tender story of a girl who learns to take care of herself instead of relying on her parents for everything, which she said she did in the past. A good survival story, but I wish there was more actual conflict.
And there you have it, my first book review.
Now I'm starting a book called Proof of Forever by Lexa Hillyer, here's a link to the Goodreads page, and once I'm done reading it, I'll write another review.
Thanks for reading!
Love, Mackenzie
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