toreadistovoyage's Reviews (1.58k)

Excellent multigenerational story. Beautiful, haunting characters who live the entire range of human experience - love, rage, violence, despair, etc.

How was this Allende's debut novel?

This was so good. Slocumb has become an autobuy author for me. His stories are compelling, mysterious, and richly crafted. 

A solid sequel. The side characters from One Dark Window became much more prominent in this book. I missed having Elspeth as narrator. I found the Elm/Ione storyline much more interesting than the Ravyn/Shepherd King storyline. 

My son enjoyed this enough to ask for the second book. In my opinion, it was okay. I wish there had been a bit more character development (it is possible, even in shorter children’s books).

This was messy in all the right ways.

There was a bit of everything:
relationship drama, 
friendship, 
the difficult transition into adulthood, 
navigating life and love, 
a few extremely awkward situations, and
secrets and lies.

This was so good. It’s the type of story I know I will return to again. The kind that causes a book hangover. 

Multigenerational family saga. 
Superb storytelling. 
Flawed but relatable characters. 

Well-written, well-researched essays.

Fueling my son’s newfound obsession with the Titanic. He and I both enjoyed this book.

Will this book be for everyone? No. It is character-driven (and there are a LOT of characters). It isn’t clear where the story is going most of the time. It has layers and layers of storylines that largely feel disconnected. 

But, man, does everything come together in the end. James McBride is a master of his craft.

YA romance isn’t a genre I read often. This was sweet and thoughtful. There were times when the teens seemed way too mature, but it wasn’t distracting. There was a good balance between love/happiness and serious topics.