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manoncremers's review against another edition
1.0
More reviews on my blog, Exploring Pages.
Actual rating: 1.5 stars
Thank you Netgalley and Hague Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book!
For once, I don't know where to start this review. Lights Over Emerald Creek is such a strange and weird book, and yet even those words don't even begin to cover it. I could say I was once again fooled by the pretty looking cover with the pretty looking lights, because I am. After having read the entire thing, I can definitely say that the premise of this book is misleading. This is certainly not a novel for everyone out there. Because of the topics this book handles, it would only come across as interesting to people with an interest for cymatics. I, for one, am not a fan of that, which quickly resulted into not being a fan of this book either.
The plot seemed to start off nicely, with Lucy discovering cymatics in the sand and asking a Scottish young man for aid. When I was a few chapters in, the plot started to take a turn into a strange direction. Events start to take place, and none of them happened because of a specific reason. It seemed more like the author herself wanted things to happen, so they eventually did. These different thin storylines had no coherence and drifted off to nowhere. The book just seemed to have a lack of an actual plot. There were so many elements to this book that seemed completely out of place that I wondered what they were doing there, or what importance they had. I found myself starting at what I just read more often than the actual reading.
In the end, Lights Over Emerald Creek resembles to a combination of contemporary, sci-fi and fantasy. That particular combination didn't work out all too well, because I have no idea in what genre this book actually belongs. If someone could tell me, that would be great.
The characters in this book are straight out flat. Throughout my reading experience, there little to zero character development. At the end of the book, all the characters are still the same as they were in the beginning. None of these characters also seemed to have a personality of their own, something I just find to be really frustrating. The only sparkle of truth was Lucy. This protagonist is kind of special, without trying or wanting to be. This girl is unlike any heroine I've read about, and that is mainly because of her pragmatic situation of being stuck in a wheelchair. She's not able to use her legs anymore after a tragic accident which killed her mom, and the pain she carries with her throughout the book is the only thing that feels real. Reading a young-adult novel from the perspective of someone with a disability is truly refreshing.
The romance didn't do anything good to the book either. Although it started out interesting, the actual love seemed to have popped up at such a random moment I couldn't again believe what I just read. It just all started completely out of the blue, with not a sign of chemistry to be found. Lucy had even better chemistry with her ex than with Jonathan. It's without a doubt one of the most forced relationships I've ever seen, and that definitely says something.
Lights Over Emerald Creek was not only a strange read, but surprisingly bad too. A short read, yes, but considering how rushed this book actually is, it doesn't come as a surprise now that it's such a short read. If you're not that interested in cymatics, I'd suggest to ignore the pretty cover because there is nothing interesting here to be found. Let me end this review with a GIF that sums up my exact reaction after finishing:
"At sixteen, Lucy believed she was a pragmatic realist, but what she'd seen twenty-four hours ago seemed to defy all logic."
- Shelley Davidow, Lights Over Emerald Creek
Actual rating: 1.5 stars
Thank you Netgalley and Hague Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book!
For once, I don't know where to start this review. Lights Over Emerald Creek is such a strange and weird book, and yet even those words don't even begin to cover it. I could say I was once again fooled by the pretty looking cover with the pretty looking lights, because I am. After having read the entire thing, I can definitely say that the premise of this book is misleading. This is certainly not a novel for everyone out there. Because of the topics this book handles, it would only come across as interesting to people with an interest for cymatics. I, for one, am not a fan of that, which quickly resulted into not being a fan of this book either.
The plot seemed to start off nicely, with Lucy discovering cymatics in the sand and asking a Scottish young man for aid. When I was a few chapters in, the plot started to take a turn into a strange direction. Events start to take place, and none of them happened because of a specific reason. It seemed more like the author herself wanted things to happen, so they eventually did. These different thin storylines had no coherence and drifted off to nowhere. The book just seemed to have a lack of an actual plot. There were so many elements to this book that seemed completely out of place that I wondered what they were doing there, or what importance they had. I found myself starting at what I just read more often than the actual reading.
In the end, Lights Over Emerald Creek resembles to a combination of contemporary, sci-fi and fantasy. That particular combination didn't work out all too well, because I have no idea in what genre this book actually belongs. If someone could tell me, that would be great.
The characters in this book are straight out flat. Throughout my reading experience, there little to zero character development. At the end of the book, all the characters are still the same as they were in the beginning. None of these characters also seemed to have a personality of their own, something I just find to be really frustrating. The only sparkle of truth was Lucy. This protagonist is kind of special, without trying or wanting to be. This girl is unlike any heroine I've read about, and that is mainly because of her pragmatic situation of being stuck in a wheelchair. She's not able to use her legs anymore after a tragic accident which killed her mom, and the pain she carries with her throughout the book is the only thing that feels real. Reading a young-adult novel from the perspective of someone with a disability is truly refreshing.
The romance didn't do anything good to the book either. Although it started out interesting, the actual love seemed to have popped up at such a random moment I couldn't again believe what I just read. It just all started completely out of the blue, with not a sign of chemistry to be found. Lucy had even better chemistry with her ex than with Jonathan. It's without a doubt one of the most forced relationships I've ever seen, and that definitely says something.
Lights Over Emerald Creek was not only a strange read, but surprisingly bad too. A short read, yes, but considering how rushed this book actually is, it doesn't come as a surprise now that it's such a short read. If you're not that interested in cymatics, I'd suggest to ignore the pretty cover because there is nothing interesting here to be found. Let me end this review with a GIF that sums up my exact reaction after finishing:
clairereviews's review against another edition
3.0
Thanks to Hague Publishing for the ARC I received, via netgalley, in return for an honest review.
Lucy Wright is a 16 year old paraplegic living with her father on a 10,000 acre farm in Queensland, Australia. One night, Lucy sees some mysterious lights over the creek at the bottom of the farm and discovers a peculiar shape in the sand, which she discovers is a cymatic.
The mystery deepens when Lucy is somehow transported to an alternate universe connected to our own by sound. As if this wasn't enough, a Scottish University student Lucy has been corresponding with is drawn to the curious place too.
Part fantasy mystery, with some romance and sci-fi thrown in for good measure, this short story of 196 pages is an enigma. It struggles to decide which genre it wants to be and I feel it becomes confusing as a result.
I enjoyed it in parts; Lucy is an engaging character and fun to read; at times there was enough mystery to keep me entertained. The plot is different from anything I've read, but I feel there was something missing. It didn't quite engage me enough.
3/5
Lucy Wright is a 16 year old paraplegic living with her father on a 10,000 acre farm in Queensland, Australia. One night, Lucy sees some mysterious lights over the creek at the bottom of the farm and discovers a peculiar shape in the sand, which she discovers is a cymatic.
The mystery deepens when Lucy is somehow transported to an alternate universe connected to our own by sound. As if this wasn't enough, a Scottish University student Lucy has been corresponding with is drawn to the curious place too.
Part fantasy mystery, with some romance and sci-fi thrown in for good measure, this short story of 196 pages is an enigma. It struggles to decide which genre it wants to be and I feel it becomes confusing as a result.
I enjoyed it in parts; Lucy is an engaging character and fun to read; at times there was enough mystery to keep me entertained. The plot is different from anything I've read, but I feel there was something missing. It didn't quite engage me enough.
3/5
kerrikins's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a bit of a strange one, lyrical and yet hard to struggle through at times.
Lucy Wright is sixteen and is now a paraplegic after an accident that took her mother's life. Dealing with both the loss of movement and the loss of her mother, Lucy suddenly finds herself dealing with odd lights in the sky, lights that seem to respond to her in some way.
For about the first half of the book I was intrigued and enjoying things. I could feel for Lucy, having lost her mother and also having to cope with the sudden change in her life - nobody imagines losing their mother and their ability to walk and run and climb all at the same time. On top of that her father seems to be taking an interest in dating again, and Lucy isn't ready for that sort of step. Add in some romantic problems and the way Lucy is continuing to adjust to the way her relationships have changed with the people around her, and you have an interesting story.
I found myself side eyeing Lucy's decisions more than once, however - she's a bit of a selfish character, and I didn't think that her father and her best friend, Nel, quite deserved all that Lucy dished out. There are some allowances for what she's been through, but I think she could have done better.
To be honest, however, I didn't quite know what to make of the paranormal/science fiction story that interlaced with the angst and the beginnings of romance. On the one hand, it was interesting, and reminded me a lot of Contact, the movie - that same sort of vague otherness, and the possibilities of different dimensions. I'd read the description, so I'd somewhat known what to expect.
The reasoning in the book was rather vague, however, and although I appreciated the dream-like quality to some of the writing, I wasn't sure that I came away with a good grasp of just what was going on in the book, or why, or what tied Lucy into all of it. Obviously she was special, but in terms of why, that was the part that was lacking for me. Dreamy paranormal alternate universes are cool, but I still need to feel like there's some sort of relationship to the here and now, or at least the 'here and now' that the main character is living in.
I think the book could have benefited from more development, to be honest - it ended quite abruptly, and left some unanswered questions.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Lucy Wright is sixteen and is now a paraplegic after an accident that took her mother's life. Dealing with both the loss of movement and the loss of her mother, Lucy suddenly finds herself dealing with odd lights in the sky, lights that seem to respond to her in some way.
For about the first half of the book I was intrigued and enjoying things. I could feel for Lucy, having lost her mother and also having to cope with the sudden change in her life - nobody imagines losing their mother and their ability to walk and run and climb all at the same time. On top of that her father seems to be taking an interest in dating again, and Lucy isn't ready for that sort of step. Add in some romantic problems and the way Lucy is continuing to adjust to the way her relationships have changed with the people around her, and you have an interesting story.
I found myself side eyeing Lucy's decisions more than once, however - she's a bit of a selfish character, and I didn't think that her father and her best friend, Nel, quite deserved all that Lucy dished out. There are some allowances for what she's been through, but I think she could have done better.
To be honest, however, I didn't quite know what to make of the paranormal/science fiction story that interlaced with the angst and the beginnings of romance. On the one hand, it was interesting, and reminded me a lot of Contact, the movie - that same sort of vague otherness, and the possibilities of different dimensions. I'd read the description, so I'd somewhat known what to expect.
The reasoning in the book was rather vague, however, and although I appreciated the dream-like quality to some of the writing, I wasn't sure that I came away with a good grasp of just what was going on in the book, or why, or what tied Lucy into all of it. Obviously she was special, but in terms of why, that was the part that was lacking for me. Dreamy paranormal alternate universes are cool, but I still need to feel like there's some sort of relationship to the here and now, or at least the 'here and now' that the main character is living in.
I think the book could have benefited from more development, to be honest - it ended quite abruptly, and left some unanswered questions.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
elephant's review against another edition
4.0
Inspired, I suppose, by Pythagoreans music of the spheres, this is a teen paranormal romance with a rather different twist. When sixteen year old Lucy sees unexplainable balls of light hovering over the water near her Australian outback home and later finds a geometric shape in the sand there, she begins to research the mystery and in her online research contacts Jonathan, a college music major in Scotland. They send e-mails back and forth and he wants to come and visit her, but she does not want him to know that she is now paraplegic due to a car wreck that killed her mother. As she investigates the lights and sounds, she is drawn into another dimension, a parallel universe where only she can change things. As she is drawn there, Jonathan is drawn to her in this first book in a fascinating series. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I look forward to reading future books in this series.
kerribookhoarder's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a bit of a strange one, lyrical and yet hard to struggle through at times.
Lucy Wright is sixteen and is now a paraplegic after an accident that took her mother's life. Dealing with both the loss of movement and the loss of her mother, Lucy suddenly finds herself dealing with odd lights in the sky, lights that seem to respond to her in some way.
For about the first half of the book I was intrigued and enjoying things. I could feel for Lucy, having lost her mother and also having to cope with the sudden change in her life - nobody imagines losing their mother and their ability to walk and run and climb all at the same time. On top of that her father seems to be taking an interest in dating again, and Lucy isn't ready for that sort of step. Add in some romantic problems and the way Lucy is continuing to adjust to the way her relationships have changed with the people around her, and you have an interesting story.
I found myself side eyeing Lucy's decisions more than once, however - she's a bit of a selfish character, and I didn't think that her father and her best friend, Nel, quite deserved all that Lucy dished out. There are some allowances for what she's been through, but I think she could have done better.
To be honest, however, I didn't quite know what to make of the paranormal/science fiction story that interlaced with the angst and the beginnings of romance. On the one hand, it was interesting, and reminded me a lot of Contact, the movie - that same sort of vague otherness, and the possibilities of different dimensions. I'd read the description, so I'd somewhat known what to expect.
The reasoning in the book was rather vague, however, and although I appreciated the dream-like quality to some of the writing, I wasn't sure that I came away with a good grasp of just what was going on in the book, or why, or what tied Lucy into all of it. Obviously she was special, but in terms of why, that was the part that was lacking for me. Dreamy paranormal alternate universes are cool, but I still need to feel like there's some sort of relationship to the here and now, or at least the 'here and now' that the main character is living in.
I think the book could have benefited from more development, to be honest - it ended quite abruptly, and left some unanswered questions.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Lucy Wright is sixteen and is now a paraplegic after an accident that took her mother's life. Dealing with both the loss of movement and the loss of her mother, Lucy suddenly finds herself dealing with odd lights in the sky, lights that seem to respond to her in some way.
For about the first half of the book I was intrigued and enjoying things. I could feel for Lucy, having lost her mother and also having to cope with the sudden change in her life - nobody imagines losing their mother and their ability to walk and run and climb all at the same time. On top of that her father seems to be taking an interest in dating again, and Lucy isn't ready for that sort of step. Add in some romantic problems and the way Lucy is continuing to adjust to the way her relationships have changed with the people around her, and you have an interesting story.
I found myself side eyeing Lucy's decisions more than once, however - she's a bit of a selfish character, and I didn't think that her father and her best friend, Nel, quite deserved all that Lucy dished out. There are some allowances for what she's been through, but I think she could have done better.
To be honest, however, I didn't quite know what to make of the paranormal/science fiction story that interlaced with the angst and the beginnings of romance. On the one hand, it was interesting, and reminded me a lot of Contact, the movie - that same sort of vague otherness, and the possibilities of different dimensions. I'd read the description, so I'd somewhat known what to expect.
The reasoning in the book was rather vague, however, and although I appreciated the dream-like quality to some of the writing, I wasn't sure that I came away with a good grasp of just what was going on in the book, or why, or what tied Lucy into all of it. Obviously she was special, but in terms of why, that was the part that was lacking for me. Dreamy paranormal alternate universes are cool, but I still need to feel like there's some sort of relationship to the here and now, or at least the 'here and now' that the main character is living in.
I think the book could have benefited from more development, to be honest - it ended quite abruptly, and left some unanswered questions.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
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