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A review by bilbo_maggins96
Exile by Rachel Starr Thomson
3.0
3 Stars.
Oh book, you make it so hard to rate you.
Unfortunately I am going to start off with the things that I didn't like about the book first.
First off, when I started this book I was immediately thinking I would end up rating it one star, maybe two at the most. The story was not bad at all, but the writing wasn't that great. In the beginning it was mostly telling and no showing. It was difficult for me to see some of the scenes clearly because of a lack of well developed descriptive writing, and also the fact that it was a little unrealistic. The first page opens up with these two boys fishing, and they find this girl caught in their net. When they haul her on board their little boat, not only is she completely fine aside from being wet, she's not even unconscious or anything, but the boys don't seem to react that oddly to her being completely unharmed. They pull her out of the water, it doesn't even mention disentangling her from the net by the way, and just ask her why she was in the water. She sits up, perfectly fine, and says she jumped off of a far off and high standing cliff.
. . .
She jumped off of a tall cliff into deep stormy waters, gets entangled in a fishing net, and is in cold water for who knows how long and is perfectly okay? That doesn't even make sense. Also, as I said before, the scene was also confusing because Rachel Starr Thomson barely even described the scene. Not how she looked being dragged from the water, not how they had to wrestle the net off of her, or how she could have been half dead or at least badly injured. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just found myself twitching to re-write that whole first scene, not because I am a better writer than miss Thomson because, lets face it, I probably am not a better writer in the slightest; but I wanted to do it because I could see how I wanted it in my head, and because the way it was actually written was so lacking.
Secondly, I felt that the POV changed hands too many times and it was kind of confusing to bounce back and forth in. It changed so often and between so many people that it made it difficult to gain any deep attachment to any of the characters. There just wasn't enough time spent on each individual character to build a relationship with them. It became a little easier as the book went on, but I still didn't develop a deep love for the characters. I liked them and I enjoyed getting to know them when I could, but there was still so much bouncing around that it made it hard to truly get connected to the characters, at least not until the very end which is kind of almost missing the point.
On the other hand, the story itself was amazing, and is ripe for so much spell binding potential! The concept was really cool and I found myself intrigued as I continued reading. I did enjoy this aspect of the book and I hope that Rachel Starr Thomson executes the idea in more creative depth and detail as the story goes on. I finished the book quickly, though at first it was just to get through it because I have a hard time not finishing a book once I've started, but then that feeling of wanting to get it over with quickly changed into a genuine curiosity as I continued on.
The beginning of this book was a rough ride for sure, but I was really glad that I stuck it through to the end. Thus this awful confliction where I don't know how to rate this. On the one hand, some of the aspects of this book were kind of terrible, but on the other there were many places where I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
So take from this review what you will! I would say it's worth reading and sticking it out to the end, but be forewarned the beginning is a hard ride.
There was nothing inappropriate in this book, and the phrase "damn it" was only used one time. Other than that there was no other swearing and the story was completely clean. A little violence and mentions of suicide and deep rooted grief, but nothing too graphic.
If you pick up this book I hope you enjoy it but... well... good luck!!
P.S. I really respect Rachel Starr Thomson and this review was in no way intended to put her book down or her writing, it was written with kindness and the intent of helpful criticism.
Happy reading!!
Oh book, you make it so hard to rate you.
Unfortunately I am going to start off with the things that I didn't like about the book first.
First off, when I started this book I was immediately thinking I would end up rating it one star, maybe two at the most. The story was not bad at all, but the writing wasn't that great. In the beginning it was mostly telling and no showing. It was difficult for me to see some of the scenes clearly because of a lack of well developed descriptive writing, and also the fact that it was a little unrealistic. The first page opens up with these two boys fishing, and they find this girl caught in their net. When they haul her on board their little boat, not only is she completely fine aside from being wet, she's not even unconscious or anything, but the boys don't seem to react that oddly to her being completely unharmed. They pull her out of the water, it doesn't even mention disentangling her from the net by the way, and just ask her why she was in the water. She sits up, perfectly fine, and says she jumped off of a far off and high standing cliff.
. . .
She jumped off of a tall cliff into deep stormy waters, gets entangled in a fishing net, and is in cold water for who knows how long and is perfectly okay? That doesn't even make sense. Also, as I said before, the scene was also confusing because Rachel Starr Thomson barely even described the scene. Not how she looked being dragged from the water, not how they had to wrestle the net off of her, or how she could have been half dead or at least badly injured. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just found myself twitching to re-write that whole first scene, not because I am a better writer than miss Thomson because, lets face it, I probably am not a better writer in the slightest; but I wanted to do it because I could see how I wanted it in my head, and because the way it was actually written was so lacking.
Secondly, I felt that the POV changed hands too many times and it was kind of confusing to bounce back and forth in. It changed so often and between so many people that it made it difficult to gain any deep attachment to any of the characters. There just wasn't enough time spent on each individual character to build a relationship with them. It became a little easier as the book went on, but I still didn't develop a deep love for the characters. I liked them and I enjoyed getting to know them when I could, but there was still so much bouncing around that it made it hard to truly get connected to the characters, at least not until the very end which is kind of almost missing the point.
On the other hand, the story itself was amazing, and is ripe for so much spell binding potential! The concept was really cool and I found myself intrigued as I continued reading. I did enjoy this aspect of the book and I hope that Rachel Starr Thomson executes the idea in more creative depth and detail as the story goes on. I finished the book quickly, though at first it was just to get through it because I have a hard time not finishing a book once I've started, but then that feeling of wanting to get it over with quickly changed into a genuine curiosity as I continued on.
The beginning of this book was a rough ride for sure, but I was really glad that I stuck it through to the end. Thus this awful confliction where I don't know how to rate this. On the one hand, some of the aspects of this book were kind of terrible, but on the other there were many places where I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
So take from this review what you will! I would say it's worth reading and sticking it out to the end, but be forewarned the beginning is a hard ride.
There was nothing inappropriate in this book, and the phrase "damn it" was only used one time. Other than that there was no other swearing and the story was completely clean. A little violence and mentions of suicide and deep rooted grief, but nothing too graphic.
If you pick up this book I hope you enjoy it but... well... good luck!!
P.S. I really respect Rachel Starr Thomson and this review was in no way intended to put her book down or her writing, it was written with kindness and the intent of helpful criticism.
Happy reading!!