A Different Blue by Amy Harmon

Amy   

fiction

Blue Echohawk, a senior in high school, is simply trying to stay afloat with the help of her tough-girl persona. She’d been abandoned by her mother at two years old, raised by a kind man until she was 11, and had been living with the man’s neglectful half-sister ever since. A new teacher joins the staff and begins to help build her confidence.

I was unable to tear myself away from the audiobook for very long. It was a great story! I adored the characters and the believable situations and the mysteries.  There was also a good deal of sexual tension which ended up making this feel-good story about acceptance—both from others and yourself—seem like a beach read for the last half.  It was just what I needed in the midst of so much negative reality these days. Happiness can be had with the right encouragement.

A Different Blue is the third Amy Harmon novel I’ve read and they’ve all been completely different and they’ve all been very good!  I can’t wait to read the next one from this amazing author.  This one felt like a cautionary tale for teenagers to read and makes me wonder if she based this novel on her own experiences or with a targeted audience message in mind.  Either way, it was a hit with me! I’m probably making it sounds like a YA romance which it is not!

The audiobook was narrated by Tavia Gilbert.  For the most part, I thought she was a wonderful voice actor and had a repertoire of voices and accents. However, I did not appreciate her British accent—particularly the way she turned all the “uh” sounds into something that is not like any British accent I’ve ever heard. This was unfortunate since one of the main characters is British.  My biggest complaint about the narration had to do with the production. Whenever she turned off her mic, there was a very loud clicking sound that was offensive. Every single time, it annoyed me. Thankfully, it was always at a chapter break but it always came immediately after her final syllable without any sort of breath or pause so it was an abrupt, rude intrusion on my enjoyment of the story.  I’ll give her an A-.

  

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

Amy   

historical fiction

This novel follows a Spanish family through the decades from the late 1930s through the early 1990s as they flee to France during the Spanish Civil War, travel to Chile as refugees, work hard to re-assemble their lives, and do their best to survive in the Chilean political unrest.

While I learned a lot about Spanish and Chilean history and I liked getting to know the main characters, this novel never swept me up. It was often too factual like a textbook. The struggles in which this family found itself all felt genuine but it felt like the political climate was the protagonist more than the characters.  And, speaking of a political climate full of unrest and division, much of it was so resonant with opinions and issues in which the US finds itself today.  It was depressing.  People never learn, do they?  Heck, there was even a toilet paper shortage in Chile during the regime changes!  Who knew? 

In the end, it was a novel about hope and survival. This book was also a love letter to Isabel Allende’s home country of Chile.  I enjoyed learning about poet Pablo Neruda. In fact, the title of the novel is inspired by one of his poems about Chile.

Sadly, I feel this audiobook took away from my enjoyment of the novel.   And it was even doubly upsetting since I ADORED the way Edoardo Ballerini read Beautiful Ruins and, therefore, had high expectations. But, I didn’t appreciate the voices he gave most of the characters (which weren’t very differentiated nor were the male voices very masculine, surprisingly) and I felt that he did nothing to improve the textbook sections of the novel but, rather, sped through them so quickly like it was a chore for even him to read them.  He did a good job with the character voice acting but let me down in the other areas.  I’ll give him a B for this novel.

 

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Amy    

Lynnie 

fantasy

Amy's Review

Zachary Ezra Rawlins discovers a story from his own life in a library book full of seemingly unconnected short stories and is, understandably, thrown for a loop. This brilliant novel follows Zachary through a magnificent adventure and is told via multiple shorter stories within a larger story.  The Starless Sea is wondrous, magical, charming, enchanting, and creative. I now place Erin Morgenstern on the same pedestal of creativity as Laini Taylor and Neil Gaiman.  She has outdone herself in conceiving this concept and successfully creating a world which is completely imaginary and real at the same time. In fact, the setting often jumps from imaginary to real seamlessly.

I’ve read many novels where I’ve felt like the author was trying too hard to be creative and the resulting novel was, therefore, a bit clunky, unpoetic, forced, and tiresome. This is not that kind of novel.  The audiobook enthralled me. I can see how some people might not appreciate the format.  It definitely requires some patience but I appreciated the crafting of the story. I don’t feel you have to wait overly long to get pulled in. Morgenstern completely immersed me in this world and I loved being there.  In fact, on several occasions, I would think about how I thought the story was going to go or made some sort of judgement in my own head about what I had just read and then one of her characters would voice the same thought/opinion!  It made me laugh out loud every time. Morgenstern was in control of her universe, had correctly understood her readers’ reactions, and acknowledged them!  What wizardry!

The Starless Sea is a book about stories and includes several obvious themes and symbols (as well as textures, tastes, and scents to tingle all the senses). But the main theme, to me, is impermanence--how good stories always include change, as does life.

While listening to the audiobook, I often backtracked to listen again to make sure I didn’t miss one delicious drop of this novel’s detail.  And before I was even done listening to it, I actually PURCHASED the novel on Kindle so that I could start it all over again and really soak up even more detail at my own speed. I need to read this again in order to fully grasp the nuances and allegories. I had previously thought I didn’t like that sort of novel. But, oh, I do like this one!  I want to know this novel intimately! I cannot remember the last time a book got under my skin like this one did. 

This audiobook featured 6 terrific narrators: Dominic Hoffman, Dion Graham, Bahni Turpin, Fiona Hardingham, Allan Corduner, and Jorjeana Marie.  They all did a great job.  I could nitpick by saying sometimes Dominic’s “narrator” voice was not emotional enough and Dion’s production made his “s” and “t” sounds almost painful to hear—too crisp.  But, these narrators gave a great performance overall so I will give them an A as an ensemble.

Lynnie's Review

I enjoyed Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus so I was eager to read her second novel. The Starless Sea is a novel about stories, how they are created, and how they are interconnected.

Told through a series of short stories that at first do not seem to relate to one another (trust me, they do) The Starless Sea jumps from the current life of Zachary Ezra Rollins, who finds his own story in a mysterious library book, to other tales of monsters, pirates, time, fate, magical libraries, and secret societies, among others. As Zachary tries to learn more about the book in which he is a character, he is led on an adventure that he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams.

There is a feeling of being unsettled while reading this book; genres and characters are constantly changing and once you think you have a handle on the connections between them, something will shift, changing the story and your perspective along the way. For me, this was the perfect escape from today's world and I was happy to put aside both common sense and reality to ride the waves of the Starless Sea. I can see though, how some people would not enjoy this journey- it can seem disjointed and confusing at times though I promise it comes together. The writing is often flowery and over-descriptive, but I enjoyed every single bit of it as it painted a vivid picture of the world that Morgenstern created. When I realized the end of the book was imminent, I admit that I stopped reading purposely each night to make the story last just a little longer as I was reluctant to turn the last page and have it end. I just wanted to stay in this story for a little longer and I'm glad that I took my time.

There are obvious and overt parallels to the idea of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which may give you some idea of the fantasy you are about to enter, but it's an original journey and one well worth taking.

Making Faces by Amy Harmon

Amy       

fiction

Everyone in town is surprised when Ambrose, the handsome star wrestler, decides to join the Army instead of taking advantage of wrestling scholarships. He and four friends go to Iraq but only Ambrose comes home--with physical and mental scars.  Meanwhile, Fern has had a crush on him forever and is not bothered by his altered face and, with the help of her cousin/best friend, tries to get past his barriers.

What a wonderful story! I adored the characters and their interactions in Making Faces. The skeleton of this story was exactly what I expected it to be.  But the muscles and sinews Amy Harmon attached to the skeleton were so impactful and touching. Harmon masterfully illustrated ways that people might deal with tough situations—single parenting, abandonment, teenage struggles, muscular dystrophy, athletic performance pressure, military life, death, disfigurement, and physical abuse.  I thought the story was heartwarming and sincere and looked forward to every moment I could spend time with these characters. The pacing was perfect.

I read this novel because I really liked another novel by this author (What the Wind Knows) and wanted to try another one. This was completely different! I’m going to read more of her novels!

The audiobook was extremely well narrated by Rob Shapiro. His voice repertoire wasn’t huge but his voice acting was some of the best I’ve heard and didn’t require a bunch of different voices.  I’m giving him an A+ for so compassionately bringing this story to life.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Lynnie

fiction, magical realism

Lillian is contacted by her former roommate and best friend Madison with a proposal- come take care of my step-children and oh, by the way, sometimes those kids burst into flames. With nothing to lose, Lillian decides to accept and begins building relationships and seeking acceptance.

I am a fan of Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang and his newest book, Nothing to See Here, evokes the same dark, quirky originality of that story. In fact, the idea of combustible children and their caretaker is a small side plot of The Family Fang that I had forgotten about until I saw it mentioned elsewhere. Obviously, Wilson has had fire children on the brain for a while.

I'm so glad he wrote an entire story about them. The characters in this novel are wonderful and they suck you into their world quickly and totally. I needed to know what would happen to them and generally I was not disappointed. Similar to The Family Fang, the ending didn't satisfy me but it did seem like the ending the characters deserved. Nothing to See Here is a fast-reading book and I'm sad that it's over which, to me, is the hallmark of a great story.