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A review by jfranco77
The Girl at the Center of the World by Austin Aslan
4.0
4 stars for this book might even be a bit generous. I loved the first book. It had a lot of heart, and was largely driven by the relationship between Leilani and her dad. This book... I don't know what it has. It has a little bit of everything, but seems like it lacks an overarching goal.
Leilani and her family are rebuilding their life after her long journey home, and her discovery that she shares a special connection with the "orchid" that lives in the sky, destroying electronics everywhere but simultaneously absorbing nuclear radiation and keeping the planet safe.
In this book, we have:
-A battle between two warring tribes for control of the island
-Another party trying to gain control over the orchids
-Boy trouble!
-Leilani struggling with the idea of *ever* letting the orchids go
-Family drama!
All of these sort of weave together into a story that meanders toward a confrontation, which kind of fizzles out in the end. If the point of the story is just "here's the aftermath of the first book, and yeah, sometimes life is disjointed and messy" then I guess it works. But I'm not sure that message was well conveyed, if it was the case.
In the end it's still a good story and the first book was so good that I'm interested in what happens to Leilani. It was just a bit of a stark contrast with the tightly wound first book.
Leilani and her family are rebuilding their life after her long journey home, and her discovery that she shares a special connection with the "orchid" that lives in the sky, destroying electronics everywhere but simultaneously absorbing nuclear radiation and keeping the planet safe.
In this book, we have:
-A battle between two warring tribes for control of the island
-Another party trying to gain control over the orchids
-Boy trouble!
-Leilani struggling with the idea of *ever* letting the orchids go
-Family drama!
All of these sort of weave together into a story that meanders toward a confrontation, which kind of fizzles out in the end. If the point of the story is just "here's the aftermath of the first book, and yeah, sometimes life is disjointed and messy" then I guess it works. But I'm not sure that message was well conveyed, if it was the case.
In the end it's still a good story and the first book was so good that I'm interested in what happens to Leilani. It was just a bit of a stark contrast with the tightly wound first book.