A review by rox74
Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown by Ann E. Burg

3.0

I wanted to like this book more, but I think the format and focus on literary elements distracts readers from the book's topic - the Johnstown flood.  It's a book in free verse, which can be a powerful format, however I don't think it worked well for this topic.  It leaves the reader filling in too many gaps in the story, while also trying to recall and piece together all the characters, each telling their own stories every few verses.  And I was confused by the lettered and numbered 'characters' and thought there'd been a publication error, especially as those pages had lighter text ink.  It wasn't until the end of the book that it was revealed that those characters were the dead, the 'A' standing for adult and 'C' for child, and the number being their age.  Of course, in hindsight it was a clever literary idea, but I think the book focused far too much on the literary form and not enough on the story it was supposed to convey, ultimately leaving readers frustrated and wanting more.