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nourbey's review against another edition
3.0
This was interesting I think. I got it a free bookstand and just read it out of bordem. I was intrigued while reading it but I didn’t really get too much out of it. Also I’ve never read a book written in verse so I have nothing to compare it to.
thebooknerdscorner's review against another edition
2.0
A novel in verse telling the tale of a lonely boy trying to fit in and a maiden who just wants to return home.
Declan Lynch is our main character in "Thin Places." He's always had an active imagination, but when he starts to hear a girl talk to him in his head, he begins to question himself. She relays that her name is Rebecca and that she desperately needs his help for some reason. This leads to him taking an impromptu trip to Ireland to find this dream girl in hopes that she is real.
The prose in this book was good and it read like a modern day fairy tale, but overall, it wasn't anything special. I have read other books starring the same magical creatures that have been much better, so this one lacked originality for me. I also didn't appreciate the "love at first sight" romance element or the flatness of the relationships.
Overall, this book has a decent enough premise, is told in poetry, and is a short read. Therefore, the book wasn't ever painful to read, but I still felt that I got nothing out of reading this book. It does feature Irish folklore and has a fairy tale vibe going, so if those are your things you may enjoy this one.
Declan Lynch is our main character in "Thin Places." He's always had an active imagination, but when he starts to hear a girl talk to him in his head, he begins to question himself. She relays that her name is Rebecca and that she desperately needs his help for some reason. This leads to him taking an impromptu trip to Ireland to find this dream girl in hopes that she is real.
The prose in this book was good and it read like a modern day fairy tale, but overall, it wasn't anything special. I have read other books starring the same magical creatures that have been much better, so this one lacked originality for me. I also didn't appreciate the "love at first sight" romance element or the flatness of the relationships.
Overall, this book has a decent enough premise, is told in poetry, and is a short read. Therefore, the book wasn't ever painful to read, but I still felt that I got nothing out of reading this book. It does feature Irish folklore and has a fairy tale vibe going, so if those are your things you may enjoy this one.
nourbey's review
3.0
This was interesting I think. I got it a free bookstand and just read it out of bordem. I was intrigued while reading it but I didn’t really get too much out of it. Also I’ve never read a book written in verse so I have nothing to compare it to.
exlibrismira's review
1.0
Please!
I shouted.
Someone save me!
But no one did.
There was only one voice.
The voice was me
saying I was doomed
to live in a world
where I did not belong."
[b:Thin Places|32608482|Thin Places|Lesley Choyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483728723s/32608482.jpg|53190994] can certainly be called an easy, quick read. It takes close to no energy from the reader and it's perfect for reading slumps. But, although I flew though it, there were quite a few things I did not like. But let's start with the positive aspects.
This book definitely deserves some brownie points for dealing with Irish culture and legends. I deeply enjoy reading about mythology of any kind so this came as a pleasant surprise. (And the main character is called Declan Lynch. Let's be real, that's probably the reason why I even read this book. I'm a shallow human being, shame on me.) And once again - it's such a fast read! It could serve as a great filler if you fall behind on your reading challenge. Thin Places could also become a great start for an English learner who would like to start reading in English and is looking for something easy to understand.
And now comes the negative part of the review.
First of all - the story felt so poorly executed. It was far-fetched, the characters seemed one dimensional and undeveloped. The writing was simplistic to the point of being plain and completely unremarkable. It lacked in description and poetic writing. Thin Places is written in verse but it seems almost unnecessary. At some points it felt more as if the author wrote a sentence and then started randomly pressing Enter.
I made some research on selkies in hopes of finding a mention of some seductive abilities they posses to make humans fall in love with them instantly so I could explain the instant love Declan felt for Rebecca few days upon her appearing in his head. But unfortunately I found nothing of that sort. (The actual research consisted of reading a few articles on selkies so I may have missed something - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
The idea behind Thin Places is interesting. It only needs to be given some more thought and time.
1.5 not-so-poetic stars.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for kindly allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
I shouted.
Someone save me!
But no one did.
There was only one voice.
The voice was me
saying I was doomed
to live in a world
where I did not belong."
[b:Thin Places|32608482|Thin Places|Lesley Choyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483728723s/32608482.jpg|53190994] can certainly be called an easy, quick read. It takes close to no energy from the reader and it's perfect for reading slumps. But, although I flew though it, there were quite a few things I did not like. But let's start with the positive aspects.
This book definitely deserves some brownie points for dealing with Irish culture and legends. I deeply enjoy reading about mythology of any kind so this came as a pleasant surprise. (And the main character is called Declan Lynch. Let's be real, that's probably the reason why I even read this book. I'm a shallow human being, shame on me.) And once again - it's such a fast read! It could serve as a great filler if you fall behind on your reading challenge. Thin Places could also become a great start for an English learner who would like to start reading in English and is looking for something easy to understand.
And now comes the negative part of the review.
First of all - the story felt so poorly executed. It was far-fetched, the characters seemed one dimensional and undeveloped. The writing was simplistic to the point of being plain and completely unremarkable. It lacked in description and poetic writing. Thin Places is written in verse but it seems almost unnecessary. At some points it felt more as if the author wrote a sentence and then started randomly pressing Enter.
I made some research on selkies in hopes of finding a mention of some seductive abilities they posses to make humans fall in love with them instantly so I could explain the instant love Declan felt for Rebecca few days upon her appearing in his head. But unfortunately I found nothing of that sort. (The actual research consisted of reading a few articles on selkies so I may have missed something - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
The idea behind Thin Places is interesting. It only needs to be given some more thought and time.
1.5 not-so-poetic stars.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for kindly allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
curlyandcarbonated's review against another edition
2.0
Thin Places by Lesley Choyce is a novel in verse about Declan Lynch, a sixteen-year-old boy, who hears the voice of a girl who lived hundreds of years ago. He falls in love with her and travels to Ireland to go and find her, and in the process, learns about the place his family comes from.
I read this book in under an hour, and usually, I enjoy novels in verse because they are so quick. Thin Places, while easy to read, left a lot unsaid-- too much unsaid for my taste. I would have enjoyed this story more if it was in a short story format.
While it can be said that this kind of novel in verse format lives in the "thin places" of the literary world, I think that also means that not many people will access this book. It's marketed for ages 12-15, and while 12-15 years can read this with ease, I don't think the interest level will be there for them.
I read this book in under an hour, and usually, I enjoy novels in verse because they are so quick. Thin Places, while easy to read, left a lot unsaid-- too much unsaid for my taste. I would have enjoyed this story more if it was in a short story format.
While it can be said that this kind of novel in verse format lives in the "thin places" of the literary world, I think that also means that not many people will access this book. It's marketed for ages 12-15, and while 12-15 years can read this with ease, I don't think the interest level will be there for them.
singerwriter94's review against another edition
2.0
Originally posted on: The Quirky Book Nerd
I am having a lot of trouble gathering together my thoughts on this book. A novel in verse, this is a short and poetic read in a beautiful setting. However, though verse novels always tend to be quicker reads, this one was way too short, in my opinion. So short, that I had absolutely no time to connect with the characters or the plot before it was finished. Though I fluidly sped through it, I never had a chance to involve myself in it. This is what makes voicing my thoughts particularly difficult—this novel left me with a sense of confusion and incompleteness.
This novel had an intriguing and eye-catching plot to me for a number of reasons. We follow a young boy named Declan Lynch, who is no stranger to hearing voices in his head. For the first sixteen years of his life, those voices took on the form of characters, involving themselves in his decision-making and all he did. Despite this, these characters still sounded like his own internal voice, allowing him to retain some sort of connection with reality.
One day, however, this changes when he begins to not only hear the voice of a girl named Rebecca, but is able to see her materialize in his head. The strong connection he immediately feels to Rebecca sends him on a journey to County Sligo, Ireland. Declan is thrust into the arms of his estranged Uncle Seamus, as he attempts to locate Ireland’s “thin places”—where the world of the living is believed to meet that of the deceased—and unite with this mysterious girl.
I was expecting this to be a sweeping journey in a beautiful country as a young boy answers a calling in himself to uncover a hidden portion of family history and discover who he is—where he fits into the world—in the process. What I actually found was that over half the book had flown by before Declan even arrived in Ireland to begin his quest to find Rebecca. This left very little time for what I thought would be—and what was represented as—the main plot point in the narrative, given the synopsis.
The characters were incredibly one-dimensional, as the length of this novel gave them little to no room to be developed. I absolutely could not connect with a single one of them, simply because there was no time. The narrative barely skimmed the surface of key elements such as characterization and world-building. It is driven much less by the characters and descriptions and much more by dialogue, which did not serve this novel well. Instead, it heavily weighed the text down.
On top of everything, this novel was insta-love central, aggravated immensely by the length of the narrative. This is never usually a good thing to have in a story—it is definitely one of those overused and highly disliked tropes in writing. The romance feels like it is just haphazardly shoved into the plotline. From the first second that Declan sees Rebecca in his mind, he instantly falls in love with her, and this takes up a huge portion of his thoughts for most of the novel. They haven’t met, he has no idea whether she is even real or not, and yet she is automatically the love of his life. This “romance” took over the majority of the narrative.
On a slightly more positive note, despite my problems with the plot and characters, the writing was surprisingly delightful in some ways. While there were some problems, the overall prose could be quite beautiful.
The only complaint I had when it came to the writing aspect of the novel was the fact that the layout of the verses—a key and very compelling point in a verse novel—felt very random and disjointed. Part of the art of a verse novel is to arrange the lines of text and breaks in those lines so that they add to the tone and significance of the plot. So not only does the writing itself need to be beautiful, but that layout has to be meaningful as well—preferably not feeling like a hasty jumbling of words.
In the end, I unfortunately did not particularly enjoy this story as a whole. It left me feeling extraordinarily unsatisfied and as if I had missed a huge chunk of plot that should have been there. I just needed more from this book and it never delivered. It was a nice, quick read that definitely staves off any sort of reading slump, but that was one of the only positives I felt by finishing this novel.
I am having a lot of trouble gathering together my thoughts on this book. A novel in verse, this is a short and poetic read in a beautiful setting. However, though verse novels always tend to be quicker reads, this one was way too short, in my opinion. So short, that I had absolutely no time to connect with the characters or the plot before it was finished. Though I fluidly sped through it, I never had a chance to involve myself in it. This is what makes voicing my thoughts particularly difficult—this novel left me with a sense of confusion and incompleteness.
This novel had an intriguing and eye-catching plot to me for a number of reasons. We follow a young boy named Declan Lynch, who is no stranger to hearing voices in his head. For the first sixteen years of his life, those voices took on the form of characters, involving themselves in his decision-making and all he did. Despite this, these characters still sounded like his own internal voice, allowing him to retain some sort of connection with reality.
One day, however, this changes when he begins to not only hear the voice of a girl named Rebecca, but is able to see her materialize in his head. The strong connection he immediately feels to Rebecca sends him on a journey to County Sligo, Ireland. Declan is thrust into the arms of his estranged Uncle Seamus, as he attempts to locate Ireland’s “thin places”—where the world of the living is believed to meet that of the deceased—and unite with this mysterious girl.
I was expecting this to be a sweeping journey in a beautiful country as a young boy answers a calling in himself to uncover a hidden portion of family history and discover who he is—where he fits into the world—in the process. What I actually found was that over half the book had flown by before Declan even arrived in Ireland to begin his quest to find Rebecca. This left very little time for what I thought would be—and what was represented as—the main plot point in the narrative, given the synopsis.
The characters were incredibly one-dimensional, as the length of this novel gave them little to no room to be developed. I absolutely could not connect with a single one of them, simply because there was no time. The narrative barely skimmed the surface of key elements such as characterization and world-building. It is driven much less by the characters and descriptions and much more by dialogue, which did not serve this novel well. Instead, it heavily weighed the text down.
On top of everything, this novel was insta-love central, aggravated immensely by the length of the narrative. This is never usually a good thing to have in a story—it is definitely one of those overused and highly disliked tropes in writing. The romance feels like it is just haphazardly shoved into the plotline. From the first second that Declan sees Rebecca in his mind, he instantly falls in love with her, and this takes up a huge portion of his thoughts for most of the novel. They haven’t met, he has no idea whether she is even real or not, and yet she is automatically the love of his life. This “romance” took over the majority of the narrative.
On a slightly more positive note, despite my problems with the plot and characters, the writing was surprisingly delightful in some ways. While there were some problems, the overall prose could be quite beautiful.
The only complaint I had when it came to the writing aspect of the novel was the fact that the layout of the verses—a key and very compelling point in a verse novel—felt very random and disjointed. Part of the art of a verse novel is to arrange the lines of text and breaks in those lines so that they add to the tone and significance of the plot. So not only does the writing itself need to be beautiful, but that layout has to be meaningful as well—preferably not feeling like a hasty jumbling of words.
In the end, I unfortunately did not particularly enjoy this story as a whole. It left me feeling extraordinarily unsatisfied and as if I had missed a huge chunk of plot that should have been there. I just needed more from this book and it never delivered. It was a nice, quick read that definitely staves off any sort of reading slump, but that was one of the only positives I felt by finishing this novel.
utopiastateofmind's review
3.0
This verse novel flies by and takes you a short, but sweet, ride into the thin places of Ireland. The mythology/fantasy aspect was my favorite and I loved the way Choyce plays with the concept of the (un)real.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss.
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/review-thin-places-lesley-choyce/
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss.
full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/review-thin-places-lesley-choyce/
ally_camel's review against another edition
4.0
Thin Places is a modern day fairy tale.
Declan always heard voices growing up but they also always sounded like him. His imaginary friends drove his dad crazy. At 16, a new voice has come calling and she most definitely does not sound like Declan. Rebecca tells Declan that she needs his help. Shows him what she looks like and puts images in his mind of places important to her. Through some research and a bit of help from his uncle, Delcan figures out Rebecca is somewhere in Ireland and convinces his dad to let him go. But where in Ireland? She doesn’t turn up on the mountain or any of the beaches he searches.
A story that leaves you feeling like you’re wandering through the mist even after everything is explained, perhaps like walking in your own neighbourhood in the fog. It’s all there but so deliciously mysterious. A story of magic and gentle heroism. The chosen format – poems – only strengthens this fuzziness. It allows us to fade in and out on the important bits and gloss over the rest.
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.
Declan always heard voices growing up but they also always sounded like him. His imaginary friends drove his dad crazy. At 16, a new voice has come calling and she most definitely does not sound like Declan. Rebecca tells Declan that she needs his help. Shows him what she looks like and puts images in his mind of places important to her. Through some research and a bit of help from his uncle, Delcan figures out Rebecca is somewhere in Ireland and convinces his dad to let him go. But where in Ireland? She doesn’t turn up on the mountain or any of the beaches he searches.
A story that leaves you feeling like you’re wandering through the mist even after everything is explained, perhaps like walking in your own neighbourhood in the fog. It’s all there but so deliciously mysterious. A story of magic and gentle heroism. The chosen format – poems – only strengthens this fuzziness. It allows us to fade in and out on the important bits and gloss over the rest.
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.