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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gently wise, sensitive and measured with endearing characters that stay with you.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You know, this book just wasn’t for me. I found it dull, and I never wanted to pick it up. Also, the whole point if this book is the friendship between the main characters and I didn’t believe. I felt absolutely no connection between them, so for me the book ultimately failed. But who knows, you might love this one. It’s out now. Thanks to the publishers for my copy.
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this book a lot. I admit I only picked it up because I am a big Kazuo Ishiguro fan, but I ended up enjoying it for completely different readers. Naomi is very much her own writer and the themes are different to what I have read in her fathers works. It is very focused on the now which I appreciated, and I was impressed with how she highlighted the issues faced by the traveller community. I liked the two main characters and their relationship, and how the narrative switched between them. However the boom was slightly too long and could have been shortened. Something just wasn’t right for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
* I think it is important to note to start that I am not an own voices reviewer for this book *
This is a lovely, heartfelt tale of growing up, friendship and choosing to build connections rather than fuel discrimination.
The book centres around Stan, a lonely boy with a depressed mother who is being bullied at school, and his friend Charlie, a slightly older boy from a Traveller family who has a very different take on what it means to belong to a place, to people and to stick up for yourself than Stan has.
Over the course of the book their friendship changes, grows and ultimately comes to stand for a hope of societal change. They don't so much save each other as they do remind each other how to be strong and resilient when needed. The best parts of their back and forth reminded me of the give and take of some of my most treasured friendships.
It is also a book about how important friendships actually are. The people we choose to surround ourselves with can in many ways define us. When the people we choose to have as our closest friends throw the rest of our lives under a difficult spotlight, it can be hard to balance the conflicting demands of the individual your family needs you to be and the the person you project to your friends. The book explores this tension wonderfully.
I felt for Charlie much more than I felt for Stan - in the first half of the book they are teenagers and I think you develop a soft spot for them both, bit in the second half when they are in their twenties Stan is so idealistic that I found it hard to think he really saw a friendship with Charlie more than he did an opportunity for a journalistic opportunity. He brings it back though, by the end. Charlie I just wanted to hug the whole way through. He is a lost boy, a lost man and somehow, underneath, he has a desperate desire to make things better in the world in a way that feels more tangible than Stan's principles do.
I think for me I would have liked to have read about these characters more at the late teenage stage and then 30s stage rather than early-mid teen and then twenties that the book centres on, and I couldn't quite get past student for the middle third. Overall though, this is a beautifully written book. It seemed to me to be trying to tell an important story about the people we overlook or choose not to befriend and to be doing it very well. If anyone knows of any own voices reviews, please let me know!
This is a lovely, heartfelt tale of growing up, friendship and choosing to build connections rather than fuel discrimination.
The book centres around Stan, a lonely boy with a depressed mother who is being bullied at school, and his friend Charlie, a slightly older boy from a Traveller family who has a very different take on what it means to belong to a place, to people and to stick up for yourself than Stan has.
Over the course of the book their friendship changes, grows and ultimately comes to stand for a hope of societal change. They don't so much save each other as they do remind each other how to be strong and resilient when needed. The best parts of their back and forth reminded me of the give and take of some of my most treasured friendships.
It is also a book about how important friendships actually are. The people we choose to surround ourselves with can in many ways define us. When the people we choose to have as our closest friends throw the rest of our lives under a difficult spotlight, it can be hard to balance the conflicting demands of the individual your family needs you to be and the the person you project to your friends. The book explores this tension wonderfully.
I felt for Charlie much more than I felt for Stan - in the first half of the book they are teenagers and I think you develop a soft spot for them both, bit in the second half when they are in their twenties Stan is so idealistic that I found it hard to think he really saw a friendship with Charlie more than he did an opportunity for a journalistic opportunity. He brings it back though, by the end. Charlie I just wanted to hug the whole way through. He is a lost boy, a lost man and somehow, underneath, he has a desperate desire to make things better in the world in a way that feels more tangible than Stan's principles do.
I think for me I would have liked to have read about these characters more at the late teenage stage and then 30s stage rather than early-mid teen and then twenties that the book centres on, and I couldn't quite get past student for the middle third. Overall though, this is a beautifully written book. It seemed to me to be trying to tell an important story about the people we overlook or choose not to befriend and to be doing it very well. If anyone knows of any own voices reviews, please let me know!