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A review by booksare42
War of the Wind by Victoria Williamson
adventurous
mysterious
tense
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? It's complicated
3.0
Thank you to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for providing me a copy of this book for a blog tour. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
War of the Wind is the fifth book I’ve read by Victoria Williamson. While I’m a fan of Victoria Williamson and impressed at her ability to write so many different genres, I had mixed feelings about War of the Wind.
I loved the characters in War of the Wind. I was rooting for Max the entire time, as he struggled to navigate and adapt to life with hearing loss. My heart broke for him when he thought his family had replaced him and his friends didn’t want him anymore. I thought Max had great character development and I thought he learned a lot about himself throughout the book. I loved reading about his evolving relationship with his friends and family.
War of the Wind is the fifth book I’ve read by Victoria Williamson. While I’m a fan of Victoria Williamson and impressed at her ability to write so many different genres, I had mixed feelings about War of the Wind.
I loved the characters in War of the Wind. I was rooting for Max the entire time, as he struggled to navigate and adapt to life with hearing loss. My heart broke for him when he thought his family had replaced him and his friends didn’t want him anymore. I thought Max had great character development and I thought he learned a lot about himself throughout the book. I loved reading about his evolving relationship with his friends and family.
Max and his friends were easy characters to root for. I wanted them to succeed in saving their community. I liked how they were able to work together and use their strengths to come up with a plan.
What made me a bit uncomfortable was the wind turbines. The wind turbines were being used for nefarious purposes and I don’t think there was enough emphasis that the turbines themselves aren’t necessarily bad, it’s that they were being used for bad things. I think the discussion of the wind turbines could have been a bit more nuanced, instead of painting them in a, mostly negative, light.
One of the tropes in this book is the “evil scientist” trope. I don’t know how I feel about this trope but I think it has the potential to be harmful. There are too many conspiracy theories about science being bad and I think this trope has the potential to make people more distrustful of science.
I appreciated the disability representation in this book. I don’t know how accurate it was, but in the author’s notes, it mentions that the British Deaf Association reviewed the novel before publication to ensure the Deaf characters’ stories were portrayed sensitively.
Two other things that I wanted to note is that this book does contain bullying and some scenes that involve physical violence. This book also falls somewhere between the Middle-Grade and Young-Adult age categories.
Overall, War of the Wind was an enjoyable read. It had some wonderful characters and representation in it. There were a few plot points that didn’t sit well with me, but overall I liked it.