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Obras de Victoria Williamson

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4.5
Book source ~ TWR Tour

Max is 14 and lives on a Scottish island with little to no outside contact with the world at large. Meaning, no internet. *gasp* In addition, a boating accident has left Max deaf and he’s not adjusting well. When an energy company comes along and offers to build wind turbines just off shore to produce energy and bring the internet including smartphones for all citizens as well (hallelujah!), Max is finally thrilled about something since the accident. Except, things aren’t what they seem, and now Max and his friends are fighting for more than access to cat videos and unlimited dank memes. They’re fighting for the lives of everyone on the island.

I’m at the age (55) where I’ve had access to the internet longer than I didn’t. I began surfing the net, as we old farts called it, in 1994. I cannot imagine not having it now. It is so entwined in my life it would be incredibly difficult to free myself from it. Assuming I wanted to. I don’t. Duh. lol So the fact that there are still actual places in the world that don’t have access to the world wide web still boggles my mind.

Anyway, on to the book. What a great read! Max’s struggle and anger feel very real. Despite the fact I wanted to smack him upside the head for his treatment of people, I do understand how he wallowed in his misery. I can imagine most adults doing the same, so I cut him some slack. Just a bit though. Fortunately, he’s a good kid at the center so he grows and learns throughout the book. And he has some great friends that he didn’t even realize were friends because of the wallowing. The wind farm is a hot topic right now with the need to do something about fossil fuels, so it’s a timely subject and the scientist tied to it adds a flare that will have you shaking your fists in anger. Great writing, awesome characters, and a touchy subject turned on its ear = a book you really shouldn’t miss.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
AVoraciousReader | Feb 10, 2024 |
Book source ~ TWR Tour

Charlie Briggs is a thief. And usually a pretty good one. But he’s met his match this time. Instead of coal in his stocking he gets something else. Something horrifying.

This is a novella. This is historical fiction. This is set at Christmas. This is a book about a book. All of those things sound wonderful. However, this book falls squarely in horror. Yikes. I’m not going to go into any detail about this tale that kept my fingers and eyes glued to the pages. Not literally. Thank the Book Gods. This is a story that really needs to be experienced without me mucking it up for you. So, if you like some horror with your Christmas then do not pass this up. Seriously.… (mais)
 
Marcado
AVoraciousReader | 1 outra resenha | Dec 20, 2023 |
The Great War may be over, but its haunting presence lingers on for Charlie Briggs, a crook trying to lay low in a small Hampshire town while waiting for the heat to die down after a botched job in London. But hiding out doesn’t mean he needs to stop working completely, even though riches seem scarce in town. So he can’t quite believe his luck when he spots a book so rare and so valuable it could actually set him up for the rest of his life. But will this last job turn out to be more than he bargained for?

I was completely captivated by this short story and its haunting Christmas setting. Charlie was a deeply unlikeable main character, someone who clearly had a hard life but made some extremely questionable choices to satisfy his greed much more than his need. And boy, was it satisfying to see that greed come back to haunt him.

The effects of the curse and the war setting were extremely vivid, with a slow build-up that kept me turning the pages, desperate to see its conclusion. Although I found this to be really well-built (especially for such a short book), the ending is perhaps what I found to be the weakest element in the story. I’ll keep this spoiler-free, but I felt it didn’t quite do justice to the great build-up to that point and had a (minor) inconsistency.

Still, it was a greatly entertaining read perfect for anyone looking to keep the spooky vibes alive during the Christmas season!

I received a copy of this book as part of the blog tour organised by TheWriteReads. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
bookforthought | 1 outra resenha | Dec 11, 2023 |
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S NORAH'S ARK ABOUT?
This is a book about a couple of eleven-year-olds in the English city of Hull who bond over their mutual attempts to help animals. Starting with a nest of baby birds who've been orphaned by a hungry cat, these two overcome various barriers (largely in the form of their parents) to various stray and abandoned animals they encounter. Along the way, they end up helping each other through some of the bigger challenges they've faced.

NORAH (AND HER FATHER)
Norah's father lost his job a few years ago, which led to them losing their home. Since then they've bounced from one temporary housing situation to another, barely scraping by on his benefits and whatever short-term and low-paying jobs he can get. They attend a church regularly—and gorge themselves on the post-service snacks. They also use a food bank from time to time—but it's hard for her father to swallow his pride and deal with the judgemental looks they receive when they do (how many of these looks are only in his mind, it's hard to tell—but some of them are real).

Norah has some learning disabilities, too—and she's never in one school long enough to really get the help she needs. Which leaves her open to being bullied while she falls further and further behind.

Norah loves animals and would do anything for a pet. Because she can't get one due to their housing situation—well, other than the spiders she keeps on her window sill—she does what she can for whatever strays she finds like the aforementioned birds. She takes care of them for a while until one day they're missing. They and their whole nest—what could've possibly happened?

Then she sees some rich boy on the other side of the fence carrying that nest. It's not fair—he has so much already, a great house, a big yard, a treehouse, fancy clothes (that fit!), and whatever he wants to eat (he is a little overweight).

ADAM (AND HIS PARENTS)
Adam and his parents moved from London to Hull a few years ago to help him get the specialized treatment he needed for leukemia. It's in remission now, but his mom has become overprotective following his diagnosis. Since she had to leave her job to care for him (and hasn't thought about going back to work), his father has to work harder than before and really has no time for anything else—even Adam.

He can't go anywhere without her. He can't go back to school—even if the doctors say he's not as immunocompromised as he once was, his mother still insists on a private tutor. He can't go swimming—he'd dreamed of going to the Olympics before he got sick—again, because of all the exposure to germs, people, and other things that could hurt him. His treatments and lack of exercise have left him out of shape. He's lonely. All he wants is a friend and to do something outside his home.

When he discovers that the neighbor's mean (at least to him) cat has eaten the mother bird, he takes the nest up to his treehouse (without his mother noticing and panicking about the filthy animals). He notices a girl on the other side of the fence quickly riding off on her bike—what a great life she must have—able to go wherever she wants!

THE GRASS AIN'T ALWAYS GREENER...
Soon, the two actually meet and decide to work together to help the birds get to safety.

They learn more about each other—both discovering the struggles the other has gone through. They have unfortunate encounters with bullies and thieves—and discover their parents want them to have nothing to do with each other.

But neither of them has really had a friend in a long time and they're unwilling to lose their new one. So they do what they can to keep that friendship—even if that means being disobedient. Both kids soon have to deal with new problems with their parents and need someone to rely on.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT NORAH'S ARK?
That's a really good question, one that I've been chewing on for a few days now.

I do have a few concerns. For example, both Norah and Adam (Adam is a bit more prone to this) can be too mature and understanding for their ages when it comes to their parents and what motivates them. Most of the time, Williamson gets them right—unreliable narrators (not because they're dishonest, but because they're 11 and don't get everything the adults are doing) who are doing their best to make it in the world and cope with the information they have, with the impulsivity and insufficient emotional control you'd expect. But occasionally, they're too perceptive, too wise...basically, they sound like they've sat through a decent amount of therapy and have internalized it. Which would be fine if they'd been in therapy, or were in their twenties. But they're a decade and change away from being fully believable on some of these fronts.

The other thing (and I'll get into vague spoilers for the rest of this paragraph, so feel free to skip it) that has bugged me since before I finished it—the ending is a bit hard to swallow. It's too easy. It's too unearned for my tastes. It's like Williamson took a page from Wayne's World and went with the "Mega Happy Ending" and just imposed it at a certain point. Please, don't misunderstand me—I want Adam and Norah to get happy endings. I like where the book puts them in the last chapter—I'd have been displeased if they didn't end up where they did. But...it would've felt more real if it didn't go that way. Or if it took slow, incremental work for them to get there—with a few big jumps along the way, sure. To use a bad illustration—you know how in some movies the uncoordinated guy goes through a training montage and suddenly can do all sorts of things they couldn't before the song started? Well, it was like that—but Norah and Adam skipped the montage and went from clumsy to ready to win the dance/singing/martial arts contest.

Now this is likely just me—I'm willing to bet that most readers in the target audience aren't going to have those issues. But I'd quite like to ask a few about their experience reading the books, particularly the ending.

Ignore all that for a moment (as I've said over and over again—it takes many more words to explain a problem I have with a book than to say all the good things I want to say). This novel nails the struggles for both these children and their parents—who are clearly trying their best (even if the kids don't always see that)—no one in this book has an easy time of it. They're all in extreme circumstances, with the cards stacked against them—and everyone is just trying to get through it as intact as they can for themselves and their family.

I loved, loved, loved that someone wrote about these situations in a Middle Grade book—you just don't see enough things like this (or at least, I don't, I shouldn't suggest it doesn't exist). I remember when I was in that audience, and Wooly Mammoths roamed the earth, that I got seriously excited when I came across a book that dealt with things like this, even if it made for hard reading. Since then, I don't see it too often.

It's impossible to read this without feeling empathy for Norah or Adam—or their parents—and to extrapolate that empathy and sympathy toward non-fictional people in similar circumstances. I'm not saying that this book is going to fix all sorts of prejudices that a child might have and fill playgrounds everywhere with mini-Brené Brown clones. But it should make it a little easier for them to put themselves in someone else's shoes, to understand that peers—or strangers—could be going through something.

If you've read and enjoyed When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald, you're going to want to check this one out. If you haven't—read both books. I think readers young and old will find a lot to admire and commend in these pages. I feel strange saying you'll enjoy a book about so much suffering—but you will, particularly when the characters find a moment of joy or peace. It's very effective—and affective—to watch these two become heroes and get different endings than either expected for most of the book.
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
hcnewton | 1 outra resenha | Sep 1, 2023 |

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Obras
9
Membros
121
Popularidade
#164,307
Avaliação
4.2
Resenhas
6
ISBNs
22
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1

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