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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
Fullkomin blanda af dularfullum, ógnvekjandi og spennandi söguþræði með ástarsamböndum bæði að byrja og enda og full af von í lokin.
Erica Waters fangar fullkomlega þá tilfinningu að vera ástfanginn að einhverjum sem maður passar ekki með og sársaukann sem það veldur að halda í vonina og sjá svo að sambandið gangi ekki upp. Á sama tíma fangar hún fullkomlega það að verða ástfanginn að þeim sem maður passar við og öryggistilfinninguna og rónna sem því fylgir.
Fyrri helmingur er medium paced, seinni helmingur fast paced. Persónurnar eru gópar og fjölbreyttar. Sumar smá óþroskaðar en eru enda 16 ára og þroskast mikið í gegnum bókina. Cedar er 🤌 og heilnæmasta persóna sögunar.
Boðskapur sögunnar: leyndarmál, eftirsjá, reiði, hatur og skömm draga andlega heilsu fólks niður og til að geta lifað góðu lífi og haldið áfram með líf sitt þarf að fyrirgefa sjálfum sér og sleppa tökum á reiði og hatri gagnvart öðrum sama hvað þau hafa gert.
Erica Waters fangar fullkomlega þá tilfinningu að vera ástfanginn að einhverjum sem maður passar ekki með og sársaukann sem það veldur að halda í vonina og sjá svo að sambandið gangi ekki upp. Á sama tíma fangar hún fullkomlega það að verða ástfanginn að þeim sem maður passar við og öryggistilfinninguna og rónna sem því fylgir.
Fyrri helmingur er medium paced, seinni helmingur fast paced. Persónurnar eru gópar og fjölbreyttar. Sumar smá óþroskaðar en eru enda 16 ára og þroskast mikið í gegnum bókina. Cedar er 🤌 og heilnæmasta persóna sögunar.
Boðskapur sögunnar: leyndarmál, eftirsjá, reiði, hatur og skömm draga andlega heilsu fólks niður og til að geta lifað góðu lífi og haldið áfram með líf sitt þarf að fyrirgefa sjálfum sér og sleppa tökum á reiði og hatri gagnvart öðrum sama hvað þau hafa gert.
so pleasantly surprised by this!! It was like "Home Before Dark" meets The South. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was AMAZING!
~ spoilers ahead ~
mostly I'm so proud of this book for not falling prey to the romance standard that every other YA does: going with the first love interest, even though they're bad for you, because you just love them so much. I was grinning at the love story in this, AND at the process of getting over your first love and going back to friendship. So well done. So spooky (the book overall, not the romance)
~ spoilers ahead ~
mostly I'm so proud of this book for not falling prey to the romance standard that every other YA does: going with the first love interest, even though they're bad for you, because you just love them so much. I was grinning at the love story in this, AND at the process of getting over your first love and going back to friendship. So well done. So spooky (the book overall, not the romance)
This book is so wonderfully atmospheric! If you love Southern Gothic, you can find a lot to love in this book! It's a really strong debut!
That said, I really struggled to stay invested in the characters. Shady is a great lead! But there were so many side characters to keep track of and while I think kinship networks and large casts in books can be done really successfully, I feel like I kept losing track of who each side character was since they, by in large, did not have terribly well developed personalities.
This has some great scary elements, but I personally didn't find them as well executed as I would hope--sometimes I felt like "yeah, sure, I guess you're telling me this is scary" without actually feeling the horror myself. This would probably work much better for people who aren't big into horror--a little bit of the horror atmosphere without too many scares.
Overall, a lot of promise, I'll definitely read Waters' next book!
That said, I really struggled to stay invested in the characters. Shady is a great lead! But there were so many side characters to keep track of and while I think kinship networks and large casts in books can be done really successfully, I feel like I kept losing track of who each side character was since they, by in large, did not have terribly well developed personalities.
This has some great scary elements, but I personally didn't find them as well executed as I would hope--sometimes I felt like "yeah, sure, I guess you're telling me this is scary" without actually feeling the horror myself. This would probably work much better for people who aren't big into horror--a little bit of the horror atmosphere without too many scares.
Overall, a lot of promise, I'll definitely read Waters' next book!
Graded By: Brian
Cover Story: Flowers On the Wall
Drinking Buddy: White Lightning
MPAA Rating: PG-13: Strong Language, Drug and Alcohol Use, Violence
Talky Talk: The Night the Lights Went Out in Florida
Bonus Factors: Bluegrass, Necromancy
Bromance Status: Gentle On my Mind
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Flowers On the Wall
Drinking Buddy: White Lightning
MPAA Rating: PG-13: Strong Language, Drug and Alcohol Use, Violence
Talky Talk: The Night the Lights Went Out in Florida
Bonus Factors: Bluegrass, Necromancy
Bromance Status: Gentle On my Mind
Read the full book report here.
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
hopeful
inspiring
Ghost Wood Song is an example of magical realism at its finest! What I loved about this story was the bond of music that the central characters shared, and how they take their art out into nature and then the stage and just play together.
The main character, Shady, is a fiddle player and she lost her father four years ago in a car accident. Now his fiddle, which has the magic to summon ghosts, is needed to clear her brother's name of a murder, and put the family's secrets to rest once and for all. I wasn't sold by the cohesiveness of the story in the very beginning. Something seemed to be missing. However, I really enjoyed the writing, the representation, and the magic in the story, and I wanted to see where the music would take the characters so I am glad I stuck with it. Overall, I would call this read a 3.5 but I rounded up to a 4 because I did like the ending.
The main character, Shady, is a fiddle player and she lost her father four years ago in a car accident. Now his fiddle, which has the magic to summon ghosts, is needed to clear her brother's name of a murder, and put the family's secrets to rest once and for all. I wasn't sold by the cohesiveness of the story in the very beginning. Something seemed to be missing. However, I really enjoyed the writing, the representation, and the magic in the story, and I wanted to see where the music would take the characters so I am glad I stuck with it. Overall, I would call this read a 3.5 but I rounded up to a 4 because I did like the ending.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a gripping novel about a girl that can see ghosts, and is trying to uncover old family secrets to help save her brother from a murder charge.
Music plays a very heavy role in this story, so much so that when I was reading it I kept on having to stop so that I could have a bluegrass binge on spotify. Being a musician I think that this aspect drew me deeply into the book, and the characters were great to get to know.
Music plays a very heavy role in this story, so much so that when I was reading it I kept on having to stop so that I could have a bluegrass binge on spotify. Being a musician I think that this aspect drew me deeply into the book, and the characters were great to get to know.
This book was very atmospheric and had very creepy, ghosty vibes. I really struggled to put it down. The characters seem to jump off the page. I absolutely loved this story and will definitely read it over and over again. I would definitely recommend this one.
mysterious
fast-paced