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awxhhlilla's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
janneke2302's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I don't know how I feel about this book. On the one hand it was beautiful and tragic and nearly made me cry when I finished it. On the other hand, it was also still disappointing. There were many throwaway lines that were transphobic and/or bodyshaming, which made me very uncomfortable. They were not a plit point or even a point of discussion, but instead felt very internalized. Now for the spoilery part of my review: I greatly disliked Zoe's choices at about two thirds of the book. She knows her choices are wrong, but the way she describes it doesn't feel as if she feels guilt for them. She is knowingly hurting both of her love interests with her decisions. While she and Aaron do have a confrontation and forgiveness, Max never gets that. The infidelity scenes between Zoe and Aaron felt awful to read. I felt horrible for Max, who really hadn't done anything to deserve getting hurt.
I predicted the ending of Max being the one who died in an accidental way quite early on in the book, but was still disappointed by it. This is a book where the premise is that a girl writes her deepest darkest secret to a murderer on death row. While I didn't want anything to happen to either Max or Aaron, that premise did make me want to read about her deciding to kill someone, instead of it being accidental. It felt like a bit of a letdown after I spent the entire book wondering what drove her to kill someone. At the same time, I was disappointed that Max was the one who died. Throughout the book, I feel like he was a quite passive character who was only there to be used and to be an obstacle between Zoe and Aaron. Even in Zoe's letters, she still writes with much more care and love about Aaron than about Max, even though Max is the one who's dead
I predicted the ending of Max being the one who died in an accidental way quite early on in the book, but was still disappointed by it. This is a book where the premise is that a girl writes her deepest darkest secret to a murderer on death row. While I didn't want anything to happen to either Max or Aaron, that premise did make me want to read about her deciding to kill someone, instead of it being accidental. It felt like a bit of a letdown after I spent the entire book wondering what drove her to kill someone. At the same time, I was disappointed that Max was the one who died. Throughout the book, I feel like he was a quite passive character who was only there to be used and to be an obstacle between Zoe and Aaron. Even in Zoe's letters, she still writes with much more care and love about Aaron than about Max, even though Max is the one who's dead
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Infidelity
Moderate: Confinement, Alcohol, and Murder
Minor: Abortion, Body shaming, Bullying, and Transphobia
amy2710's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Grief, Murder, Death, Alcohol, and Abortion
ignoreve's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
one of my favourite books out there. So underrated!! it got me back into reading after years of on and off reading here and there. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and suspense created !
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body shaming, Cursing, Vomit, Child death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
erenrinren's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Ketchup Clouds or Yours Truly by Annabel Pitcher contains the letters of a teenage girl in England to a death row inmate in Texas. Zoe from Bath (she changed her name and location) has a deadly secret of her own and you unravel it as the story goes on. Other than her name and location, everything Zoe tells Mr Harris is true.
I listened to this story on audiobook; it was narrated by Julie Masey and overall the narrator did an excellent job, albeit at points her voice did seem a bit old for 15-year-old Zoe. Masey was clear in her narration and the way she read allowed for understanding. I own the physical copy, however, in preparation for this review I saw a review that said that the way the book is laid out very differently so it was hard to discern what is happening in terms of scenes. If you find issues with the physical copy, I highly recommend the audio.
Let’s go through some of the characters. Zoe, our main character, writer of the letters, writer of Beedle the Bazil-Bog, discovered Mr. Harris through an online site for inmate pen-pals. We never hear from Mr. Harris, but as the letters go on, Zoe addresses him as a close friend. Near the beginning of the story we find out that her grandfather has had a stroke and for some reason the family has never spoken to him in years. This event starts off a series of harsher and harsher arguments between Zoe’s parents concerning him and slowly revealing why the children aren’t allowed to visit their grandfather.
Zoe has two younger sisters, Sophie and Dot. We find out early on that Dot is deaf, due to circumstances unknown until later in the novel. I was looking further into reviews for Ketchup Clouds, trying to find someone who had either mentioned the fact that Dot was deaf, or was deaf or hard-of-hearing themselves. This is because I wanted to see if there was accurate representation, as I am neither deaf nor hard-of-hearing; although Dot appears throughout the novel, she is not a main character, so I understand the difficulty. I did find something on disabilityinkidlit.com, link of which I’ll place in the references section.
The premise of the story Zoe tells Mr. Harris is that she meets two boyswho turn out to be brothers and ends up liking them both. Max, the popular boy in school, albeit the person who distributed topless pictures of Zoe without her consent or knowledge and coerced her into sexual acts, among other things and Aaron, an older boy. The plot is a slow moving one, as we jump from the present to the past, which isn’t always a bad thing as we build suspense and further questions.
Pitcher writes Zoe as a guilt-ridden aspiring writer, and her voice highlights Zoe’s love for Narnia-like fantasy. When everything seems “resolved,” the story does wrap up, but we question how Zoe was truly able to rid her guilt, if she even did.
I was only going to give this book around 2.5 stars, but then bumped it up as I read on to about 3.75 stars. After sitting on my rating for a few days, I decided to bump it back down to three stars. I do not regret reading Ketchup Clouds, it actually entertained me on my commute to and from work. However, it didn’t blow me off my feet. I enjoyed the epistolary style, although the pacing at times was a bit much, and I kind of felt like it was built up so much to the big reveal, and when it happened, I was kind of disappointed there wasn’t something more to it. I did manage to guess where it was actually set though, so there we go.
Overall, this was a slow-burning suspense that answers questions and gives more questions as it goes on. Ketchup Clouds is best for those who are a bit older, as there are many mature events/themes that occur, but if you enjoy unique, suspenseful reads, this might be a good one for you to try.
References:
http://disabilityinkidlit.com/2017/05/19/asl-writing-a-visual-language/
I listened to this story on audiobook; it was narrated by Julie Masey and overall the narrator did an excellent job, albeit at points her voice did seem a bit old for 15-year-old Zoe. Masey was clear in her narration and the way she read allowed for understanding. I own the physical copy, however, in preparation for this review I saw a review that said that the way the book is laid out very differently so it was hard to discern what is happening in terms of scenes. If you find issues with the physical copy, I highly recommend the audio.
Let’s go through some of the characters. Zoe, our main character, writer of the letters, writer of Beedle the Bazil-Bog, discovered Mr. Harris through an online site for inmate pen-pals. We never hear from Mr. Harris, but as the letters go on, Zoe addresses him as a close friend. Near the beginning of the story we find out that her grandfather has had a stroke and for some reason the family has never spoken to him in years. This event starts off a series of harsher and harsher arguments between Zoe’s parents concerning him and slowly revealing why the children aren’t allowed to visit their grandfather.
Zoe has two younger sisters, Sophie and Dot. We find out early on that Dot is deaf, due to circumstances unknown until later in the novel. I was looking further into reviews for Ketchup Clouds, trying to find someone who had either mentioned the fact that Dot was deaf, or was deaf or hard-of-hearing themselves. This is because I wanted to see if there was accurate representation, as I am neither deaf nor hard-of-hearing; although Dot appears throughout the novel, she is not a main character, so I understand the difficulty. I did find something on disabilityinkidlit.com, link of which I’ll place in the references section.
The premise of the story Zoe tells Mr. Harris is that she meets two boys
Pitcher writes Zoe as a guilt-ridden aspiring writer, and her voice highlights Zoe’s love for Narnia-like fantasy. When everything seems “resolved,” the story does wrap up, but we question how Zoe was truly able to rid her guilt, if she even did.
I was only going to give this book around 2.5 stars, but then bumped it up as I read on to about 3.75 stars. After sitting on my rating for a few days, I decided to bump it back down to three stars. I do not regret reading Ketchup Clouds, it actually entertained me on my commute to and from work. However, it didn’t blow me off my feet. I enjoyed the epistolary style, although the pacing at times was a bit much, and I kind of felt like it was built up so much to the big reveal, and when it happened, I was kind of disappointed there wasn’t something more to it. I did manage to guess where it was actually set though, so there we go.
Overall, this was a slow-burning suspense that answers questions and gives more questions as it goes on. Ketchup Clouds is best for those who are a bit older, as there are many mature events/themes that occur, but if you enjoy unique, suspenseful reads, this might be a good one for you to try.
References:
http://disabilityinkidlit.com/2017/05/19/asl-writing-a-visual-language/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Blood
Sexual content (including issues of consent) and Sexual harassment and “revenge porn”, sexual coercion, and violence leading to death/murder.
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