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A review by mhinnen
Life, Loss, and Puffins by Catherine Ryan Hyde
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I love Catherine Ryan Hyde's books. Her character relationships are interesting and unexpected. She brings the characters to life and they seem to grow through the differences in one another. In Life, Love, and Puffins, "freakishly smart" thirteen-year-old, Rue and her nonbinary seventeen-year-old friend, Gabriel run away and set out on a road trip to experience three specific adventures. They ditch their cell phones to avoid being caught and rely on "old-fashioned" means for the needed information. We meet several characters along their journey and the descriptions of the landscape and experiences are well written. I particularly enjoyed their time in the wilderness.
That said, this book fell flat for me. I struggled to get through it (I read about a quarter of it in the fall and then came back and started it over in the spring). I didn't understand why Rue is telling the story to two girls instead of just telling the readers. I was uncomfortable with normalizing the friendship of two teens of such different ages and genders in close proximity and an especially vulnerable girl. I was also uncomfortable with normalizing a thirteen-year-old girl and a seventeen-year-old boy running away. Even though Ru's aunt was not a loving figure, she was committed to making sure Ru had her basic needs met and that she was safe. And in general, while I appreciated Gabriel's personality, I didn't really love any of the characters, except maybe the puffins. Who doesn't love puffins?
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
That said, this book fell flat for me. I struggled to get through it (I read about a quarter of it in the fall and then came back and started it over in the spring). I didn't understand why Rue is telling the story to two girls instead of just telling the readers. I was uncomfortable with normalizing the friendship of two teens of such different ages and genders in close proximity and an especially vulnerable girl. I was also uncomfortable with normalizing a thirteen-year-old girl and a seventeen-year-old boy running away. Even though Ru's aunt was not a loving figure, she was committed to making sure Ru had her basic needs met and that she was safe. And in general, while I appreciated Gabriel's personality, I didn't really love any of the characters, except maybe the puffins. Who doesn't love puffins?
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.