Review: Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dame by L L Samson

Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dame, fourteen-year-old twins Linus and Ophelia Easterday have been left to live with their aunt and uncle (also twins) in Kingscross, home of the famous (fictional) Americal university, while their parents go on a five-year research trip to do something important (well, something they think is important, anyway).

While exploring the old house they are now living in, Linus and Ophelia find a hidden attic filled with the belongings of the mysterious Cato, who used to own the house before he simply disappeared one day. The attic has a lot of strange books and bottles, and a large circle has been drawn on the floor. An ‘accident' with a magic circle brings the fictional Quasimodo out of the classic Victor Hugo novel and into the Real World.

The twins find that Quasi will be with them for sixty hours, and that if they do not follow instructions exactly, he might end his days fizzing down to a pile of dirty rags. As they befriend the fictional hunchback, they find someone else knows about him, and wants to harm him. So, they join with Walter, their new neighbour, to protect Quasi and return him unharmed to fictional Paris (and providing the reader with the formulaic two boys-one girl mystery-solving trio that has worked so well in other series for this age group).

I don't read a lot of Middle Grade fiction, so I'm not entirely sure what represents the best of the genre (although having read a few of the High School Musical, Hannah Montana and Mary-Kate and Ashley books, I have a good understanding of how shallow and trite Middle Grade fiction can be). I enjoyed Facing the Hunchback of Notre Damefor what it was: a fun adventure story for 8-12 year olds, with a little classic literature and a few thoughts on good writing thrown in for educational value.  For example:

“It is within my nature to explain a bit of the writing process as I proceed. You may choose to either use these tidbits of information to increase your knowledge of English and the fine art of writing, or ignore the opportunity to learn literary technique from an expert and simply skip over my explanations. If you choose to ignore the input that I have so generously provided regarding the writing craft, then you may also choose to ignore the simplified definitions of some of the rather advanced words I’ve used within the story— words that I’ve explained at the request of Linus, who seems to think my vocabulary rather too advanced for the average reader.”

Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dameis a humorous and enjoyable story that would be a good book for reading aloud, and I can see it fitting well into a home schooling curriculum. There is even the odd interjection for the sake of the parents, and this humour, combined with the distinctive voice of the narrator (Bartholomew Inkster, janitor at Kingscross University) reminded me of Roald Dahl. There are a few too many exclamation marks for my taste, but I suppose it is the distinctive voice of the narrator and the age group the book is targeting.

Although it is published by Zondervan, Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dameis not an obviously 'Christian' novel, but it is a fun read, with a plot device that is well set up for a series (it is Book 1 of The Enchanted Attic series). Thanks to Zonderkidz and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Wish You Were Here by Beth K Vogt

Alison Denman is marrying Seth Rayner in five days, and is having second thoughts about the frou-frou dress with the huge train that her future mother-in-law ‘encouraged’ her to buy. She’s having second thoughts about the 350-guest wedding. She’s having second thoughts about the bouquet. She’s looking at her board of ‘Wish You Were Here’ postcards from Seth’s older brother, Daniel. But that’s got nothing to do with why she’s having second thoughts… and then Daniel kisses her while helping pack up her apartment five days before the wedding. And she kisses him back. Now what?

My initial impression of Seth was that he was too good to be true. I found myself quite disliking him as Wish You Were Herewore on. Part of me didn’t like the idea of Alison leaving her long-term boyfriend at the altar; another part of me saw that there was something a bit ‘off’ about him, so didn’t want Alison to get back together with him.

I liked Seth’s brother, Daniel, although I am always a bit hesitant about too big an age gap between a couple (and, at eight years, this was pushing my limits). But Daniel is a gentleman with a strong code of personal honour, and I could respect that about him.

As Wish You Were Hereprogressed, we found out more about Alison, about why she was prepared to marry Seth, the safe choice, and what happened that made ‘safe’ such an important choice for her. We also met Alison’s best friend, Meghan, who knows the secret even Seth doesn’t know…

Despite the almost-cliché ‘Runaway Bride’ beginning, this book is a fun debut novel. I found the beginning almost too fast-paced, in a ‘I had trouble catching my breath’ kind of way. But it calmed down and turned into a very enjoyable story of a young woman trying to sort out what she wants from life, unimpeded by a boyfriend/finance with a very strong personality, fighting an attraction to his older brother, and trying to reconcile herself to the God she has all but forgotten. While this is a Christian novel, the Christian element is quite understated. An enjoyable debut.

Thanks to Howard Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Leaving Lancaster by Kate Lloyd

Almost forty years have passed since Esther Gingerich and Samuel Fisher ran away from their Amish upbringing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and headed west to live in a hippie commune and sing on the streets of San Francisco. They married, Samuel was drafted, shipped off to Vietnam and declared MIA, leaving Esther to raise their daughter alone because she was too proud to return to her family. Holly grew up believing her grandparents were dead, so it comes as a complete shock to her when Esther announces her intention to visit their Amish family, and wants Holly to come.

The story alternates between being told in the first person (by 37-year-old Holly) and the third person (from the point of view of Esther, Holly's mother). I continually found myself backtracking to the beginning of the chapter because I hadn't picked up the change. Call me fussy, but combining first person and third person doesn't ring true for me. It reminds me that I'm just reading a story about a bunch of made-up characters. This meant that I was noticing the writing rather than being carried along by the story, and as a result, I kept finding more things that bothered me While these were mostly minor, many of which were addressed later in the story, I found these glitches were pulling me out of the story.

For example, should I really be getting distracted by a Wikipedia article on how the Vietnam draft worked in the US when I am reading a contemporary novel set in Amish Pennsylvania? (How does a homeless hippie get drafted anyway? And when is this novel set? Holly is 37, and Wikipedia tells me the US stopped drafting men in 1973, which means this novel is set in 2010, not 2012. Yes, that is exactly how picky I get when the story isn’t grabbing me sufficiently).

There were also contradictions. At one point, Esther thinks “According to her folks’ bishop and preachers, if she didn’t obey the Ordnung, God would never allow her into paradise”, then later “[Amish] ways centered on obeying God”. So are these Amish obeying God or the Ordnung? Jesus and the New Testament Pharisees taught us that obeying the rules is not the same as obeying God, and as a Bible-reading Christian, Esther should know that.

And I found Holly a little hard to relate to. I could understand her anger and resentment towards her mother for having hidden her very alive family for so many years. I could not understand someone living in a shop selling Amish goods yet knowing so little about the Amish and their customs. She also struck me as very self-centred, and I didn’t really see this change as the story progressed.

Overall, I can’t say that I enjoyed Leaving Lancaster. Plot-wise, it wasn’t bad, with an underlying theme of honesty and forgiveness. But I found the writing style too distracting to allow me to get into and enjoy the story, so I had to struggle to finish it.

Thanks to David C Cook and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Stardust by Carla Stewart

When O’Dell Peyton’s body washes up in the East Texas bayou, his wife Georgia knows that her cheating husband really has gone for good. Left to raise two daughters with no source of income, Georgia is trying to find an alternative to moving in with Aunt Cora when she unexpectedly inherits the Stardust tourist cabins. Georgia eagerly takes on the project of restoring the Stardust to its former glory, propelled by her childhood memories. Room 5 of the Stardust was the last place Georgia saw her parents before they abandoned her, leaving her to be raised by Aunt Cora.

As the story progresses, we meet more characters from Mayhew (where Georgia lives) and Zion (the colored settlement on the other side of the bayou), and we see that “people, we’re all connected even when it doesn’t seem like we are”, just like the local legend of the cypress knees that connect the trees up and down the bayou. (And that is kneees, not trees. )

Some authors feel the need to practically hit the reader over the head with their research. Stardust is obviously well researched and feels historically accurate, but I never felt that I was being preached at or lectured to. By halfway through I was thanking God for the medical advances over the last half century that mean I never have to worry about my children getting polio. The novel is also a fascinating insight into the lives and attitudes of Southerners towards 'colored' people in 1950's Texas.

Stardust is written in the first person from Georgia’s point of view, with a voice that is immediately engaging. This is lovely story, well-plotted and beautifully written story of secrets and forgiveness, set in the backdrop of the 1952 polio epidemic and the March of Dimes, a national charity dedicated to supporting polio victims and eradicating the dreaded disease. Reading Stardust was an unexpected pleasure. Recommended.

Thanks to Faithwords and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. Click to read an ACFW interview with the author, Carla Stewart.

Review: Arms of Love by Kelly Long

On her deathbed, Mary Yoder extracts a promise from young Adam Wyse that he will give up the love of her daughter, Lena, until he is free from his father’s harsh rule. Adam makes the promise, but reluctantly because of his love for Lena, and decides that he will go and fight in the Revolutionary War, despite the pacifist stance of his Amish faith.

Arms of Love is different to most Amish novels, in that it is set in 1777, near Lancaster in William Penn’s Wood (which we know from modern Amish novels becomes Lancaster County, Pennsylvania). This historical setting provided for some external conflict, both literally and figuratively, as many Amish apparently did abandon their pacifist beliefs to fight for the Revolutionary cause in the War of Independence.

The historical setting meant that the novel focused more on the internal conflicts in the relationships between the families, and when the Amish were distinguished from their neighbours by their dress rather than their old-fashioned way of living. After all, in 1777, everyone baked their own bread and electricity hadn’t been discovered.

Most Amish novels use a combination of English and German to convey the fact that most Amish speak German at home, even today (although the Yoder family obviously didn’t speak German at home, because there was no reference to the language issue when Ruth, the English wet nurse arrived).

But I found that Arms of Love took the use of German too far, to the point that it detracted from the story. Using 'gut' for 'good' was manageable, but some of the German words used were not so common or easily translatable (e.g. Derr Herr for God or fesh washa for the ceremony of foot washing). There was a glossary at the beginning of the book but it is irritating enough to continually have to skip back and forward between the glossary and the story in a physical book. It is almost impossible on an e-reader.

The passing of time was another issue. It seems to be only a matter of days or possibly weeks between the death of Mary Yoder and her husband's remarriage. He had barely had time to mourn the loss of his wife, yet we were expected to believe that he had fallen in love with another woman.

As a result, I found Arms of Love hard to get into, and didn’t really ‘get’ the story, so didn’t enjoy it at all. I found the first half quite disjointed - several characters, especially the men, seem to suffer from having multiple personalities - cruel one minute and kind the next, with no explanation. Sometimes this technique is used to introduce hidden secrets; here I found it to be confusing and distracting rather than mysterious and exciting.

As well as the usual discussion questions at the end of the book, Arms of Love also includes a four week Bible study, with a deeper focus on some of the themes of the story. I just suspect the author focused too much on creating a story that people could learn from, and not enough on creating a story people would enjoy reading.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.