Kathrine
Sweet story and an easy read. Loved the apple tree - probably my favorite character (second favorite is Evanelle). I do wish the author had been a little less...vague when it came to Sydney and Henry's relationship. A few more details would have been nice instead of just the assumption that they live happily ever after.
Enjoyed the book for the most part, but it was easy to tell that this was Connelly's first book. The writing seemed rather heavy at times and even a bit formulaic. Loner cop who's better than good at his job but has issues in his past. Good guys who turnout to be bad guys. Slightly more defined than cardboard female character (at least until the last 30 pages or so). I spent a good part of the book wanting to know more about the case that laned Bosch in so much trouble than caring about tunnels and bank heists. I did like Bosch and am curious now to see where the author takes the character.
While the story felt a bit dated - written almost 20 years ago - it was fun to be a bit nostalgic about a time before we were all attached to our cell phones and other smart devices and actually had to make the effort to talk to people.
I had high hopes for this book starting out - mostly due to the positive reviews I read. Instead I was very disappointed. While I was aware of the speculation/accepted views that Dodgson was a pedophile, I was not prepared for that to be what the author used to propel her entire story. I really didn't like how the voice she gave Alice. She wasn't just a sweet, mischievous 7 yr old who had a very large crush on an adult in her life but that she was lusting after him at age 7 and age 11. And then she was a 20 something and then an 80 something woman who had done her best to block out that 7 yr old.
I was confused as to who the narrator was. Was is 80 yr old Alice remembering what happened all those years ago? Or was it Alice as she was at whatever age she was supposed to be during each period of time in her life? 7 yr old Alice sounded exactly like 11 yr old Alice who sounded exactly like 80 year old Alice. Yet most of that didn't read like 80 yr old Alice remembering things.
The two parts that shined (and redeemed this book to 2 stars for me) were the sections with Leo and with Regi. Though I do wish the author had given us a little more background on Regi and Alice's relationship with him.
I sat here trying to decide whether to give this book 2 stars or 3. This is the 2nd book in a row where I wished I could give 1/2 stars. While I appreciate McCarthy's decision to use a different type of set up, in the end it was too dis-jointed for me. There were moments that were touching, that I felt connected to - the scene where the father found the underground stockpile - most of the time the questions that kept popping into my head overpowered anything emotional. Fungus grows but nothing else does? Fires are started but everything is already burned? It's snowing all the time but hey look, the beach is all sand? The son was born at the “beginning” of the nuclear winter but he was now old enough to have real conversations (in completely formed sentences) so how long after the incident does the story take place? How long have they been traveling? And after all those years why hasn't any green life returned anywhere?
Then there was the grammar issue. Or should I say lack of grammar. Is McCarthy allergic to apostrophes? It's don'tdont.
A quick, easy read. Liked both David and his father as characters and felt they were the most well drawn in the book. Some of the other though - particularly the grandfather - were more caricature. The story was simplistic which fit with the idea of a 12 year old being the narrator but it never became anything more than that to me. Instead of being drawn in, I felt like I was watching all the events through the window in the Hayden family living room.
This was the first Lisa Jackson book I've read. Overall I enjoyed it. Well paced, well drawn characters, not overly wordy. There was just one plot hole that bugged me - if Christian had everything all planned out ahead of time (who represented what, how he'd kidnap them, etc), why would Montoya have been on his kill list? The detective wasn't even on his radar until he she started spending more time with Abby. Shouldn't there have been someone else originally on the list representing pride? It was a bit of a stretch that Montoya's confirmation name just happen to begin with “p”.
Not a big fan of the author's style, but I could have dealt with that if she'd stopped trying to hit me over the head with her sledgehammer of a metaphor comparing storms with mental illness. It was a good comparison, she just over used it.
The first section was pretty good - it held my attention for the most part. She obviously did her storm chasing research (as evidenced by the acknowledgments at the end). After that though things started to fall apart. By the time she got to the big reveal in the second section, I was bored and didn't care. I honestly didn't get why they didn't go to the police to begin with. The last section basically fumbles along until the author ties everything up in a pretty little bow. I prefer that my books have “endings” but I don't need them to be all cute and happy.