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June Bug is a contemporary novel that kicks off when the titular character sees an age-progressed face of a missing child on a poster in Walmart and recognizes it as her own. For as long as she can remember, 9-year-old June Bug and her daddy have been traveling around the USA in a dilapidated RV. But armed with this new information, June begins to question everything she's been told about herself.
With their RV broken down, June and her daddy are forced to accept help from the kindness of a stranger who suddenly seems to have ideas about becoming more than just friends with the twosome.
This is where I first started having issues with the book. My initial thoughts when it began was this would likely be a 4-star read, however, Miss Sheila's sudden transformation from good Samaritan into pushy woman with fantasies threw me off a little. It also, unfortunately, set the tone for later in the book.
Around 55% through, some of the previously interesting characters turned preachy. I mean, I felt like I was being recruited and about to be handed a cup of Kool-Aid.
I don't have issues with religious characters in books, but when it comes without warning as it did here, it feels like the author is intruding their own beliefs into the story. Don't. Not when it hasn't previously been shown to be part of the character's nature.
I also thought the way narrators were used was odd. Chapters written from June Bug's perspective were in first person, while those of every other character (to the best of my recollection, there were 3 others) were in third person. It just gave the book a very uneven, inconsistent feel, and the chapter transitions felt very jarring to me because of it.
Brief pause for a confusing plot spoiler:
So, there wasn't really any offensive content that I feel would warrant warnings. The heavy preachy tone of the second half of the book might be off-putting to some (it was to me). There were a few grammatical/formatting issues in the Kindle version I read. I didn't note the first one but it was a long word that was erroneously broken in a weird place. Something like "ramshackle shed" only written as "rams hackle shed." Once, the word "coming" was written "com ing," and a Mason jar was referred to as a mason jar. Little things that probably wouldn't annoy a lot of people, but which irked me.
I really liked the character of June Bug, and the overall idea of the plot. Unfortunately, I felt like this was yet another case of the blurb being actually better than the book. The idea was great; the execution was not.
2 out of 5 stars
With their RV broken down, June and her daddy are forced to accept help from the kindness of a stranger who suddenly seems to have ideas about becoming more than just friends with the twosome.
This is where I first started having issues with the book. My initial thoughts when it began was this would likely be a 4-star read, however, Miss Sheila's sudden transformation from good Samaritan into pushy woman with fantasies threw me off a little. It also, unfortunately, set the tone for later in the book.
Around 55% through, some of the previously interesting characters turned preachy. I mean, I felt like I was being recruited and about to be handed a cup of Kool-Aid.
I don't have issues with religious characters in books, but when it comes without warning as it did here, it feels like the author is intruding their own beliefs into the story. Don't. Not when it hasn't previously been shown to be part of the character's nature.
I also thought the way narrators were used was odd. Chapters written from June Bug's perspective were in first person, while those of every other character (to the best of my recollection, there were 3 others) were in third person. It just gave the book a very uneven, inconsistent feel, and the chapter transitions felt very jarring to me because of it.
Brief pause for a confusing plot spoiler:
Spoiler
June Bug's dad deciding to leave her with Sheila while he went home made absolutely no sense based on what he actually did while there. The more I consider this, the more confused I get with what this was supposed to accomplish.So, there wasn't really any offensive content that I feel would warrant warnings. The heavy preachy tone of the second half of the book might be off-putting to some (it was to me). There were a few grammatical/formatting issues in the Kindle version I read. I didn't note the first one but it was a long word that was erroneously broken in a weird place. Something like "ramshackle shed" only written as "rams hackle shed." Once, the word "coming" was written "com ing," and a Mason jar was referred to as a mason jar. Little things that probably wouldn't annoy a lot of people, but which irked me.
I really liked the character of June Bug, and the overall idea of the plot. Unfortunately, I felt like this was yet another case of the blurb being actually better than the book. The idea was great; the execution was not.
2 out of 5 stars