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A review by theladygonzalez
Blackwood by Gwenda Bond
3.0
The concept behind Blackwood was genius. The vanishing of the settlers has been a mystery that people have been speculating about for hundreds of years. It’s one of the most famous mysteries in American history and is the perfect opportunity to spin an amazing paranormal tale- which is exactly what Bond does. Blackwood is packed full with excitement, mystery and general creepiness.
I loved both main characters (Miranda and Phillips). They both had such a determined spark that made them easy to fall in love with. Plus, they both possess the snarky gene, which happens to be one of my favorite qualities in characters.
The setup of the book confused me at times; mainly when the author would switch perspectives. Let me try and explain this. Every so often the author would switch perspectives to an unknown character; usually one of the missing people. These sections would be italicized and talked about random things, like going out with girls the night before, opening doors and eating donuts. Let’s just say I found it incredibly confusing. Not only do you not know who you are reading about, you don’t really know what you are reading about. It certainly threw me off and interrupted the flow of the story.
I also felt like the plotline got a little over ambitious as the book progressed. Things became entirely too complicated. I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys, but I felt like the author was pulling in all these different elements towards the end that weren’t all that necessary. It just ended up jumbling things in my head and making it difficult to focus on the key points of the story.
But, all in all, I found Blackwood to be terribly exciting. Sure, there were little faults with the book, but in the grand scheme of things I enjoyed it. I wanted, needed to know what was going to happen to Miranda and Phillips and that kept me turning the pages. I can forgive being slightly confused at times and the choppiness of the pacing because the story kept me wanting to read it.
Oh and one last thing I noted, it is mentioned in the book that Miranda's mom loved Blondie and her favorite Blondie song is Heartbreaker. I'm pretty sure there is no Blondie song called Heartbreaker - that's a Pat Benatar song. Could it be Heart of Glass?
I loved both main characters (Miranda and Phillips). They both had such a determined spark that made them easy to fall in love with. Plus, they both possess the snarky gene, which happens to be one of my favorite qualities in characters.
The setup of the book confused me at times; mainly when the author would switch perspectives. Let me try and explain this. Every so often the author would switch perspectives to an unknown character; usually one of the missing people. These sections would be italicized and talked about random things, like going out with girls the night before, opening doors and eating donuts. Let’s just say I found it incredibly confusing. Not only do you not know who you are reading about, you don’t really know what you are reading about. It certainly threw me off and interrupted the flow of the story.
I also felt like the plotline got a little over ambitious as the book progressed. Things became entirely too complicated. I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys, but I felt like the author was pulling in all these different elements towards the end that weren’t all that necessary. It just ended up jumbling things in my head and making it difficult to focus on the key points of the story.
But, all in all, I found Blackwood to be terribly exciting. Sure, there were little faults with the book, but in the grand scheme of things I enjoyed it. I wanted, needed to know what was going to happen to Miranda and Phillips and that kept me turning the pages. I can forgive being slightly confused at times and the choppiness of the pacing because the story kept me wanting to read it.
Oh and one last thing I noted, it is mentioned in the book that Miranda's mom loved Blondie and her favorite Blondie song is Heartbreaker. I'm pretty sure there is no Blondie song called Heartbreaker - that's a Pat Benatar song. Could it be Heart of Glass?