Review: Agonizing mix of minutiae followed by huge gaps "did me in!"
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2013
I love young adult fiction and have read authors such as Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, and Andre Norton and hundreds of others (when the books were new, not reprinted). I can even quote a poem from "The Riddlemaster of Hed," and if that book isn't ponderous (and I loved it), I don't know what is. I was excited about this new book!WHAT IS THE THOUGHT PROCESS FOR ANYBODY ANYWHERE IN THIS BOOK? We never get a complete account. It's narrative with random thought reports!It's an agonizing mix of minutiae followed by huge gaps or generalizations that ultimately "did me in." I felt like I was reading one of those adventure books (If the ship sinks, go to page 92...) with wads of pages missing!I was prepared to enjoy this well-meaning story but I was only getting HALF of what Mira was experiencing. She has a party and gives someone the chance to say Happy Birthday and he doesn't. Aaaaaannnnd nothing! Was she disappointed? I thought she would be, but we don't know what she thought. She ushers kids into the super cool-ly decorated room and...spouts a paragraph of simplified solar system info. No responses from the other kids about the speech, none of her thoughts, nothing. (She makes little speeches like this throughout the book and they just hang there.) The kids make paper spaceships (airplanes) which aren't quite finished an hour later when a kid comes late. She asks him if it's okay for everybody to fly them. He says yes. Why is she asking him? Why is he giving permission? What are they thinking?When Mira participates in an event we note that she has an idea or does something, but not how she feels. We're told she's afraid of someone but not why or how it affects her behavior. Traumatic things happen but they are never thought of again. Mira's parents move around and talk like a Stepford family. And there's a guy that is all-wise but snarky and mean-spirited that lives under ground and men go to ask for his help and advice...yup, they do...huh...?Maybe I just totally missed the boat on this one, but I honestly gave it several tries. I even theorized that my mood may be an issue so I read a few books and went back to this one, but I literally could not bear to go beyond 67% of this free Kindle book and it's upsetting. I don't like to write negative things about a person's hopes and dreams as a writer/author, but maybe this review will help the author and/or a prospective reader.