Review: A good read for young adults
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 29, 2011
Review of Hope's Daughter by Melanie Cusick-JonesThis book was sent to me by the author for review. I read it in a single sitting. I enjoyed the book in spite of its flaws. I suspect that the flaws that concerned me will not bother its primary targeted reader.Plot: Four StarsCharacterization: Four StarsTechnical Execution: Four StarsWriting Style: Four stars.This book is targeted at young adult readers and is appropriate for middle schoolers and older. It tells the story of a young girl caught in a world that seems too perfect and yet seriously flawed. To tell more would spoil the ending.The plot is relatively straight-forward. It is one of the few times where I have seen first person narration work well. It works very well and may be the only way this story could be told without jarring inconsistencies. However, there are issues. The prologue does more harm that it does good. Skip it. The ending will be more powerful without it. There is a three page back-story data dump early in the book that could be handled in a single paragraph. I am not fond of "the old guy tells all" endings and wish that the information had been discovered and fought for instead of being dished out as if it was in a text book.There are a few logical inconsistencies in the world building. For example, the conditions under which Cassie and her colleagues live do not make sense given the purpose expressed in the end.Cassie's character is well-drawn and deep. Balik's character is good, but not great. The remainder of the characters are thinly drawn and rely on stereotypes. Even the "old guy" mentioned above could use more depth.I found a few grammatical and word use errors. These were not the sorts of errors a spell checker or grammar checker would have caught, but were enough to make me stop to think about them.The writing style was mostly competent, but lacked any real sense of brilliance. It was wordy in places, but for the most part was plain, as it should be.This a perfectly acceptable work for young adult readers. An adult will likely find it simplistic, but since it reads so quickly, that should not be a problem.