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beastreader's review against another edition
3.0
This is not a bad book, I just could not find myself relating or connecting with all of the characters in this book. Or maybe I did connect in some way as I could not stand most of them. I really only found Aubrey, Aunt Sheila, and Joseph to be interesting. The rest of the family I had no interest in. In fact, I found Aubrey, Ruth, and Joseph's mother to really piss me off. Any time she made an appearance in the story, I would cringe and after a while, I would quickly flip past her parts.
Which I have to comment and say that as much as I appreciated the family dynamics surrounding Joseph's circumstance, I did grow tried at times of how slowly the story read. It seemed like parts would be repeated again and again but in different ways. A good ending though to this story.
Which I have to comment and say that as much as I appreciated the family dynamics surrounding Joseph's circumstance, I did grow tried at times of how slowly the story read. It seemed like parts would be repeated again and again but in different ways. A good ending though to this story.
judithdcollins's review against another edition
5.0
A special thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
You can always expect a moving, emotional, thought-provoking, and wise message from Catherine Ryan Hyde-- woven through the eloquent words of her powerful, unforgettable novels.
With ASK HIM WHY, there is much more than good storytelling, and a powerful message--- A novel you want to dissect. A flawed broken family. Daughter, Ruth (Duck), Younger son, Aubrey (Mr. Universe), and older son, Joseph. Brad and Janet – parents. A therapist (Luanne).
Mistakes are made. Strong words are said. Betrayal. Consequences. Wasted Years. A powerful bold takeaway message: Hope, redemption, and forgiveness.
A stranger, a wise unselfish man (Hammish MacCallum) who pulls together a lost family. A saver of lives. Don’t we all wish we had more "Ham’s" in this world? It would be a much better place.
Ruth, a girl caught in the middle of two troubled brothers, desperately trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, even as a grown adult. Where presumptions only serve to mislead you.
Many obstacles: the war, Iraq, a mission, a cliff, expectations, media, assumptions, troubled young adults, a broken family.
ASK HIM WHY is like a complex puzzle. A broken family. This family does not know how to be a family. No communication. Silence is socially acceptable. Outward appearances matter. Parents handing down bad habits to their own children.
What might a real family look like? When there are no role models, bad habits continue through generations, until a disaster, a tragedy ---recalculating. Sometimes this takes an outsider, a stranger, to lead the wayward back on the correct path.
Strongly reminding me of a quote, “Maybe it isn’t that we’re supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we’re the pieces. Maybe, what we’re supposed to do is come together. That’s how we stop the breaking.”
If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it. If you’re working at solving a puzzle, it is impossible to force the pieces to fit. If you try and force pieces where they don’t belong, the rounded edges will separate and crease, damaging the puzzle.
While reading many books, there are those rare, intriguing few which stand out. Ask Him is one of those. Most readers read a novel for simple entertainment. I also enjoy dissecting or understanding the inspiration behind the novel. The construction. The hidden meanings. The message.
With authors in particular such as Catherine Ryan Hyde with a long list of successful books, readers (myself included), tend to compare one novel to another. Each novel deserves to stand on its own accord.
What I enjoy about Hyde and Koontz, in particular; their writing is unique, clever, original, and no one book is like the other. You see reviews all over the board. Each reader receives a different message. Sometimes there is more than the outward appearance. The obvious. It urges you to dig deeper, for the hidden meaning, the extraordinary, lingering characters remaining with you. A book written from the heart. An ideal book for young and older adults, and those in between. Powerful!
Always curious how authors take a small spark of an idea, an inspiration, and build something incredible---the thought behind the masterpiece. Having read no hints about how this book came to be; I am positive Hyde has an intriguing story. I for one would love to hear it—with an author Q&A.
Perfect timing with today’s national controversial headlines of war, unrest, terrorism, suicide, bullying, and hatred. There are so many mixed messages of good versus evil. A strong novel!
Ask Him Why is a complex book, you need to think about--to ponder. It draws you in. There is a thought process. It is one of those rare books, which does not use the sensational…"See Me" I am great, you have to read me. It is a more slow burning, deeper novel --calling you into the wee hours of the morning. Characters, events, emotions, words, actions.
There is so much depth here; however, you need to peel back the layers. You will find yourself bookmarking so many pages of beautiful prose. Literary criticism can be at times, like the focus of this novel. Judgmental. This novel grows from the inside out, full of metaphors and life lessons.
Ask. When you don’t know something, you ask. You don’t assume. No one asked for Joseph’s side of the story. No one seems curious as to why he did what he did? There are always two sides to a coin. Aren't we all guilty of doing the same? There is also Forgiveness.
Some of my favorite quotes:
The ending: PRICELESS! Highly Recommend.
“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”-Deepak Chopra
JDCMustReadBooks
You can always expect a moving, emotional, thought-provoking, and wise message from Catherine Ryan Hyde-- woven through the eloquent words of her powerful, unforgettable novels.
With ASK HIM WHY, there is much more than good storytelling, and a powerful message--- A novel you want to dissect. A flawed broken family. Daughter, Ruth (Duck), Younger son, Aubrey (Mr. Universe), and older son, Joseph. Brad and Janet – parents. A therapist (Luanne).
Mistakes are made. Strong words are said. Betrayal. Consequences. Wasted Years. A powerful bold takeaway message: Hope, redemption, and forgiveness.
A stranger, a wise unselfish man (Hammish MacCallum) who pulls together a lost family. A saver of lives. Don’t we all wish we had more "Ham’s" in this world? It would be a much better place.
Ruth, a girl caught in the middle of two troubled brothers, desperately trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, even as a grown adult. Where presumptions only serve to mislead you.
Many obstacles: the war, Iraq, a mission, a cliff, expectations, media, assumptions, troubled young adults, a broken family.
ASK HIM WHY is like a complex puzzle. A broken family. This family does not know how to be a family. No communication. Silence is socially acceptable. Outward appearances matter. Parents handing down bad habits to their own children.
What might a real family look like? When there are no role models, bad habits continue through generations, until a disaster, a tragedy ---recalculating. Sometimes this takes an outsider, a stranger, to lead the wayward back on the correct path.
Strongly reminding me of a quote, “Maybe it isn’t that we’re supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we’re the pieces. Maybe, what we’re supposed to do is come together. That’s how we stop the breaking.”
If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it. If you’re working at solving a puzzle, it is impossible to force the pieces to fit. If you try and force pieces where they don’t belong, the rounded edges will separate and crease, damaging the puzzle.
While reading many books, there are those rare, intriguing few which stand out. Ask Him is one of those. Most readers read a novel for simple entertainment. I also enjoy dissecting or understanding the inspiration behind the novel. The construction. The hidden meanings. The message.
With authors in particular such as Catherine Ryan Hyde with a long list of successful books, readers (myself included), tend to compare one novel to another. Each novel deserves to stand on its own accord.
What I enjoy about Hyde and Koontz, in particular; their writing is unique, clever, original, and no one book is like the other. You see reviews all over the board. Each reader receives a different message. Sometimes there is more than the outward appearance. The obvious. It urges you to dig deeper, for the hidden meaning, the extraordinary, lingering characters remaining with you. A book written from the heart. An ideal book for young and older adults, and those in between. Powerful!
Always curious how authors take a small spark of an idea, an inspiration, and build something incredible---the thought behind the masterpiece. Having read no hints about how this book came to be; I am positive Hyde has an intriguing story. I for one would love to hear it—with an author Q&A.
Perfect timing with today’s national controversial headlines of war, unrest, terrorism, suicide, bullying, and hatred. There are so many mixed messages of good versus evil. A strong novel!
Ask Him Why is a complex book, you need to think about--to ponder. It draws you in. There is a thought process. It is one of those rare books, which does not use the sensational…"See Me" I am great, you have to read me. It is a more slow burning, deeper novel --calling you into the wee hours of the morning. Characters, events, emotions, words, actions.
There is so much depth here; however, you need to peel back the layers. You will find yourself bookmarking so many pages of beautiful prose. Literary criticism can be at times, like the focus of this novel. Judgmental. This novel grows from the inside out, full of metaphors and life lessons.
Ask. When you don’t know something, you ask. You don’t assume. No one asked for Joseph’s side of the story. No one seems curious as to why he did what he did? There are always two sides to a coin. Aren't we all guilty of doing the same? There is also Forgiveness.
Some of my favorite quotes:
Ruth: “How to start the pattern of silence. So innocently, and on such a small scale, and then once you open the door for them, they barge in and take on a life of their own.”
Ham: “Good to get the truth out into the air. Everything grows best in oxygen and sunlight except secrets and guilt and regrets. They like the dark spaces. Drag them out into the light and they fail to thrive.”
Ruth: “No pressure, I thought. Just a dying family member with a dying wish that’s probably impossible, but it’s my job to make it come true. No worries. Happy holidays to all. I’ll do my best.”
Joseph: “I learned a good lesson a long time ago, too, Mr. Universe: never assume you’ll have a million more chances.”
Ham: “They didn’t get what they needed from their folks, so now they can’t give you kids what they don’t have. They’re victims and the perpetrators, both, and the cycle just keeps going around and around. And I don’t know what do to stop it, any more than anybody else does, except I just know bacon and eggs and potatoes. It doesn’t fix everything, but it makes a dent, and anyway, like said before, I can only do what I can do and no more.”
“Hammy says you can’t unroll a snowball. Just like you can’t un-ring a bell. We are responsible for what we do.”
Ham: "Nothing in this life is simple. When trouble comes to the world. They try to make things black and white, but nothing ever will be. It’s where all the bad stuff gets its start. There’s the trouble people make by trying to shape the world to suit them and failing.”
"Janet and Brad broke Joseph, and Hamish MacCallum patched him up and got him halfway back together again."
"How would you feel it you had to wait ten and half years, for someone to, ask, why?"
"You can heal your own self first, but most people never do. Maybe because you have to start by admitting you’re broken."
Aubrey to Luanne: "Sometimes I wonder why I pay you money to have this stuff shoved in my face." Luanne: "If it helps to be reminded, Aubrey, you don’t pay me much."
The ending: PRICELESS! Highly Recommend.
“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”-Deepak Chopra
JDCMustReadBooks
kdurham2's review
4.0
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
When something happens to someone it also happens to their families and this book tells the story of how the family is affected as their eldest son comes home very early from war because something has happened. With alternating chapters from the other two children of the family they tell of how this big thing affected them at school and at home.
I really enjoy family dramas and this one took an interesting twist with the other children narrating the story instead of the child who brought the tragedy home. I liked how the story was told in three parts, so the reader gets to see these children at three different moments in their life and how each of them reacted to it. Each child goes down a different path and I appreciated that the author presented both reactions.
When something happens to someone it also happens to their families and this book tells the story of how the family is affected as their eldest son comes home very early from war because something has happened. With alternating chapters from the other two children of the family they tell of how this big thing affected them at school and at home.
I really enjoy family dramas and this one took an interesting twist with the other children narrating the story instead of the child who brought the tragedy home. I liked how the story was told in three parts, so the reader gets to see these children at three different moments in their life and how each of them reacted to it. Each child goes down a different path and I appreciated that the author presented both reactions.
marceelf's review
2.0
http://www.anurseandabook.com/2016/01/ask-him-why-by-catherine-ryan-hyde.html
I love Catherine Ryan Hyde, and usually her books are an easy win for me. But this one dragged on a little. I think mostly because I'm sick of hearing about Bowe Bergdahl - first the Serial podcast, then this book. I wasn't that interested in the first place, to be honest.
So this issue may have been mine - especially since I see it has a high 4 rating on Goodreads, but I just had a hard time getting into it.
The main theme was the entire family didn't know how to communicate and kept their feelings to themselves, but this also made the narration of the story very flat, and didn't pull me in emotionally like most of Hyde's books.
So this is the first official unfinished book of 2016. And it's killing me, with my compulsive need for closure.
I love Catherine Ryan Hyde, and usually her books are an easy win for me. But this one dragged on a little. I think mostly because I'm sick of hearing about Bowe Bergdahl - first the Serial podcast, then this book. I wasn't that interested in the first place, to be honest.
So this issue may have been mine - especially since I see it has a high 4 rating on Goodreads, but I just had a hard time getting into it.
The main theme was the entire family didn't know how to communicate and kept their feelings to themselves, but this also made the narration of the story very flat, and didn't pull me in emotionally like most of Hyde's books.
So this is the first official unfinished book of 2016. And it's killing me, with my compulsive need for closure.
susanthebookbag's review
5.0
This author always writes such emotional stories with likeable, caring, believable characters. Ask Him Why is another wonderful story from Catherine Ryan Hyde.
I was immediately swept up in the drama of Aubrey, Ruth, and Joseph. It's is amazing how one incident can affect so many lives and change so many feelings. As the three of them embark on a journey to find the truth, and each other, the reader is blessed with the words of wisdom that are to be savored from the pages of the book.
As usual when I read one of Catherine's stories, I fell in love with the characters and truly came to feel what they are going through. I race through her stories because they are just that good but I also treasure each page as I go, wishing it could go on and on.
I was immediately swept up in the drama of Aubrey, Ruth, and Joseph. It's is amazing how one incident can affect so many lives and change so many feelings. As the three of them embark on a journey to find the truth, and each other, the reader is blessed with the words of wisdom that are to be savored from the pages of the book.
As usual when I read one of Catherine's stories, I fell in love with the characters and truly came to feel what they are going through. I race through her stories because they are just that good but I also treasure each page as I go, wishing it could go on and on.
problemreader's review against another edition
5.0
This book really pulled on my heart strings. I cried off and on through the last 30 pages or so of the book. This one will stay with me a long time.
leahegood's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to Cyber Monday for talking me into taking a chance on a book I would never have noticed otherwise. Ask Him Why is way more literary than my typical YA Dystopian fare. Waaaaay different. All dialogue and emotional rumination, but it held my attention captive (obviously ... since I purchased it on Cyber Monday, started it on Tuesday, and am already finished with it.
One of my most recent blog posts expressed some of the thoughts that ran through my head after hearing the synopsis of [b:Me Before You|15507958|Me Before You (Me Before You, #1)|Jojo Moyes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357108762s/15507958.jpg|17763198]. The idea of a novel that condoned medically assisted suicide really bothered me. [b:Ask Him Why|25526969|Ask Him Why|Catherine Ryan Hyde|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439364297s/25526969.jpg|45313986], another mainstream novel, carried an entirely different message. I feel like even the titles indicate that difference.
I'm guessing Hammish, the mentor of Ask Him Why, was inspired at least partially by a similar real-life character I read about a while back. That theme of quietly being there to help strangers was my favorite part of the book and Hammish hands down my favorite character.
So, what happens when war blurs black and white to gray, but the vast majority don't see the gray? How can a decision made thousands of miles away wreak havoc on an already dysfunctional family? Can reunion and reconciliation happen after a decade of separation?
Note: My one word of warning with this story is the infrequent use of mild profanities.
One of my most recent blog posts expressed some of the thoughts that ran through my head after hearing the synopsis of [b:Me Before You|15507958|Me Before You (Me Before You, #1)|Jojo Moyes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357108762s/15507958.jpg|17763198]. The idea of a novel that condoned medically assisted suicide really bothered me. [b:Ask Him Why|25526969|Ask Him Why|Catherine Ryan Hyde|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439364297s/25526969.jpg|45313986], another mainstream novel, carried an entirely different message. I feel like even the titles indicate that difference.
I'm guessing Hammish, the mentor of Ask Him Why, was inspired at least partially by a similar real-life character I read about a while back. That theme of quietly being there to help strangers was my favorite part of the book and Hammish hands down my favorite character.
So, what happens when war blurs black and white to gray, but the vast majority don't see the gray? How can a decision made thousands of miles away wreak havoc on an already dysfunctional family? Can reunion and reconciliation happen after a decade of separation?
Note: My one word of warning with this story is the infrequent use of mild profanities.