kblincoln's review against another edition
5.0
I liked Wide Open so much that I finished it and immediately went and ordered the 2nd in the series, Deep Down.
Wow, in a brusque, stoic way.
From the opening paragraphs, this book pulls you body and soul into the stoic, terse, windblown prairies of South Dakota ranch and farmlands. Hallie, the protagonist, is a non-nonsense, emotionally repressed, angry daughter of a small town rancher. When we meet her she is returning home on sudden leave from her army posting in Afghanistan due to the death of a family member.
She is impatient, judgemental, and cranky-- exactly like the father with whom she can not quite voice their grief. Nor can she discuss her uneasiness over her sister's death. People in town think she may have commited suicide, but once Hallie begins to find out about an new business in town, weather-related, and hears about the strange fires and disappearances of young women, she can't leave old wounds and painful history alone until she can discover the truth about her sister.
Okay, so the habit many characters have of trailing off midsentence or saying purposefully vague things did annoy me about halfway through the book, but other than that tick, this book really pulled me in. The details of weather and rancher life, the layered characters whose ticks and personality all make sense once you've heard backstory, Hallie's gruff, cranky, need-to-do-something if something needs doing personality, and the main mystery of the story (which involves Northern European mythology, and wonderfully took me a while to guess)were solidly written. On top of that you get the repressed emotionality of the ghosts that haunt Hallie-- so perfectly written for the society she lives in. Ever-present, silent, but full of grief.
Hallie's slow melting of resentment and fear into wanting to trust with romantic foil Boyd rang pitch-true.
All in all, this is the kind of "urban" (should we say "prairie?") fantasy I love-- the kind that uses the fantastic to highlight human frailties and courage in our current society and bring emotional catharsis to wounds that depictions of "normal" life may leave undiscovered.
I can't wait to crack open the next in the series.
This Book's Snack Rating: Salt-and-Pepper Kettle chips for the no-nonsense flavor of Hallie's South Dakota world and the satisfying crunch of well-laid plot and fantastic elements
Wow, in a brusque, stoic way.
From the opening paragraphs, this book pulls you body and soul into the stoic, terse, windblown prairies of South Dakota ranch and farmlands. Hallie, the protagonist, is a non-nonsense, emotionally repressed, angry daughter of a small town rancher. When we meet her she is returning home on sudden leave from her army posting in Afghanistan due to the death of a family member.
She is impatient, judgemental, and cranky-- exactly like the father with whom she can not quite voice their grief. Nor can she discuss her uneasiness over her sister's death. People in town think she may have commited suicide, but once Hallie begins to find out about an new business in town, weather-related, and hears about the strange fires and disappearances of young women, she can't leave old wounds and painful history alone until she can discover the truth about her sister.
Okay, so the habit many characters have of trailing off midsentence or saying purposefully vague things did annoy me about halfway through the book, but other than that tick, this book really pulled me in. The details of weather and rancher life, the layered characters whose ticks and personality all make sense once you've heard backstory, Hallie's gruff, cranky, need-to-do-something if something needs doing personality, and the main mystery of the story (which involves Northern European mythology, and wonderfully took me a while to guess)were solidly written. On top of that you get the repressed emotionality of the ghosts that haunt Hallie-- so perfectly written for the society she lives in. Ever-present, silent, but full of grief.
Hallie's slow melting of resentment and fear into wanting to trust with romantic foil Boyd rang pitch-true.
All in all, this is the kind of "urban" (should we say "prairie?") fantasy I love-- the kind that uses the fantastic to highlight human frailties and courage in our current society and bring emotional catharsis to wounds that depictions of "normal" life may leave undiscovered.
I can't wait to crack open the next in the series.
This Book's Snack Rating: Salt-and-Pepper Kettle chips for the no-nonsense flavor of Hallie's South Dakota world and the satisfying crunch of well-laid plot and fantastic elements
jonmhansen's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great book. The main character, Hallie, is angry. So angry at what she has been through and what she is going through, and all of it understandable, if sometimes not completely 100% justified. And it is awesome.
nyctei's review against another edition
3.0
I'd say 3.5 stars is a good rating for this book. I rounded up to 4.
First the negative. There were some awkwardly worded and run on sentences. There was a lot of repetition at times. Boyd was often doing things unconsciously, or stopping because he realized he was doing something. Hallie was rubbing her eye or pressing her palm to her cheekbones a lot. Especially the left one for some reason.
Hallie says shit constantly. Often it is the entirety of her response. Her aunt arrives "shit". "Sorry about your sister." "Shit." etc etc. I don't have an issue with cursing but it seemed gratuitous or lazy at points. At least make it sound natural or mix it up.
That being said, I really didn't want to like Hallie, but she grew on me. As the story progressed she seemed to take on more character. Not so much through her words or thoughts but through her actions. She gets stuff done.
The story takes a while to pick up. At least for me, I was probably 70% in before I got to the can't-put-it-down stage. But it DID get there in the end. I even found myself starting to read the excerpt from the next book at the end and thinking "Oh Yay, it's Hallie." Also the book kept me guessing about some things. It leaves things vague but I like filling in the blanks. So that's not really a drawback to me but it may be to some.
First the negative. There were some awkwardly worded and run on sentences. There was a lot of repetition at times. Boyd was often doing things unconsciously, or stopping because he realized he was doing something. Hallie was rubbing her eye or pressing her palm to her cheekbones a lot. Especially the left one for some reason.
Hallie says shit constantly. Often it is the entirety of her response. Her aunt arrives "shit". "Sorry about your sister." "Shit." etc etc. I don't have an issue with cursing but it seemed gratuitous or lazy at points. At least make it sound natural or mix it up.
That being said, I really didn't want to like Hallie, but she grew on me. As the story progressed she seemed to take on more character. Not so much through her words or thoughts but through her actions. She gets stuff done.
The story takes a while to pick up. At least for me, I was probably 70% in before I got to the can't-put-it-down stage. But it DID get there in the end. I even found myself starting to read the excerpt from the next book at the end and thinking "Oh Yay, it's Hallie." Also the book kept me guessing about some things. It leaves things vague but I like filling in the blanks. So that's not really a drawback to me but it may be to some.
maryrobinson's review against another edition
3.0
Really liked a lot of this fantasy-mystery. It has a great protagonist: a woman on leave from Afghanistan duty coming home for sister’s funeral who ends up investigating her death – with some otherworldly friends. So yes, there’s magic, but yet it’s very gritty and realistic. My only complaint is I would have like to have seen this book be much longer to allow for more character development and the back stories of all the good guys and bad guys.
minotaursmaze's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting enough to make me go looking for the next book.
colls's review against another edition
4.0
The writing is uncomplicated and the story was engaging. I liked the protagonist and will definitely look to read the 2nd book in the series.
csarakas's review against another edition
3.0
There is so much promise with this book. It wasn't set in a city so it doesn't have the urban fantasy feel that is so overdone these days. I very much enjoyed the setting and the premise of her story. There weren't a whole ton of supernatural creatures running around; what magic is there is very understated and secondary to the characters.
Ah, the characters. This is where the book falls short. Hallie, our heroine, is just unlikeable. This is fine in a story - as long as you give me a reason for why she's so prickly. We got no reason - hints and flashes of her life (she's an Army soldier serving in Afghanistan, on leave for her sister's funeral) but no real development beyond the surface. There's a lot of running around. She says 'shit' a lot. She sees ghosts, but it's not a 'Ghost Whisperer' set-up. (That part I liked.) She's trying to prove her sister didn't commit suicide. She seems to have a very large chip on her shoulder (but why?).
The ending set us up for the next story. Hopefully, the author will get deeper into the characters and give us something to really sink our teeth into.
Ah, the characters. This is where the book falls short. Hallie, our heroine, is just unlikeable. This is fine in a story - as long as you give me a reason for why she's so prickly. We got no reason - hints and flashes of her life (she's an Army soldier serving in Afghanistan, on leave for her sister's funeral) but no real development beyond the surface. There's a lot of running around. She says 'shit' a lot. She sees ghosts, but it's not a 'Ghost Whisperer' set-up. (That part I liked.) She's trying to prove her sister didn't commit suicide. She seems to have a very large chip on her shoulder (but why?).
The ending set us up for the next story. Hopefully, the author will get deeper into the characters and give us something to really sink our teeth into.
lrn22's review against another edition
2.0
This book was a murder mystery with magic and ghosts thrown in except the magic aspect was just an odd addition. There was no thought put into the magic system and it didn't make any sense.
drey72's review against another edition
3.0
Wide Open is the story of a young woman who has ten days to solve her sister’s murder. Never mind that everybody says it was a suicide, Hallie just can’t believe that her sister would do such a thing. So off she goes, poking around and raising questions (about her own mental health) and hackles, from the very minute she steps off the plane. Before she knows it, she’s antagonized the town’s police, got into a bar fight, and accumulated a ghostly following – including her sister Dell.
There are some fantasy elements to this story, but I wouldn’t consider it a true fantasy or even urban fantasy (not as I think of the category anyway) – rather it’s a mystery with some paranormal elements. The plot is pretty straight-forward: Hallie needs to find her sister’s murderer before her ten days are up. There is no true repercussion to failure – except in the event that she, too, is killed – the murderer is simply free to continue on his wicked way.
I have to say I really enjoyed reading Wide Open, even though its story could have been told better. I got annoyed at Hallie’s behavior quite a bit – I thought she could be better, even though I know she’s exhausted, both mentally and physically, at having to deal with everything she’s facing. I know she needs to find out what really happened to her sister – and I applaud her efforts in that direction – but I thought some of the story felt a bit far-fetched, without enough reason and plot to hold it together for the entire book. However, all in all, it was an entertaining enough read, and I liked that it was more mystery than fantasy, i.e. it didn’t hit you over the head with all these supernatural creatures that populate urban fantasy. I would check out the next book (whenever it’s released)…
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
There are some fantasy elements to this story, but I wouldn’t consider it a true fantasy or even urban fantasy (not as I think of the category anyway) – rather it’s a mystery with some paranormal elements. The plot is pretty straight-forward: Hallie needs to find her sister’s murderer before her ten days are up. There is no true repercussion to failure – except in the event that she, too, is killed – the murderer is simply free to continue on his wicked way.
I have to say I really enjoyed reading Wide Open, even though its story could have been told better. I got annoyed at Hallie’s behavior quite a bit – I thought she could be better, even though I know she’s exhausted, both mentally and physically, at having to deal with everything she’s facing. I know she needs to find out what really happened to her sister – and I applaud her efforts in that direction – but I thought some of the story felt a bit far-fetched, without enough reason and plot to hold it together for the entire book. However, all in all, it was an entertaining enough read, and I liked that it was more mystery than fantasy, i.e. it didn’t hit you over the head with all these supernatural creatures that populate urban fantasy. I would check out the next book (whenever it’s released)…
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
teetate's review against another edition
5.0
By the clearest definition of the word, Hallie Michaels is a soldier. She’s tough, she’s blunt and she prefers action to words. In Wide Open, she’s also home on a ten day leave to mourn the death of her sister, Dell. From Afghanistan, she’s brought more than war wounds and the violent memories of her seven minute death. Also tagging along is the ghost of her friend and fellow soldier and when she leaves the tarmac, she discovers that Dell’s ghost has joined the fray. It’s a ghostly group that only expands as the mysteries of the plot are revealed.
Dell was murdered and Hallie is determined to spend her ten day leave discovering who is responsible.
But there are obstacles in her way. Namely, the sheriff, Boyd, and her hometown friends who are convinced that Dell killed herself by wrapping her car around a tree. Hallie’s not buying it and she uses all her cunning, all the skills she’s acquired in the military to investigate her sister’s death and do it during her very brief leave.
The further she investigates Dell’s life prior to her death, the more secrets, lies and mysteries unfold. To complicate matters is her growing bond with Boyd and the odd weather patterns that seem to strike at will, damaging and killing with prejudice.
One could say that Hallie is an idealized feminist paradigm of what a female heroine can manage if given the room to stretch and grown. But Coates hasn’t written anything like that cliche. She’s crafted a story about a hero, a soldier, a fighter who happens to be female.
She has woven an intricate plot held together by characters that are dynamic and conflicts that are not easy to determine. Wide Open exhibits Coates’ heavily detailed research and personal experience that gives readers a story with not only heart, but gut.
Equal parts thriller and mystery with a unique supernatural bent, Wide Open will have readers clamoring for a re-read and with itchy fingers eager to get their hands on the next installment.
Highly recommended
Dell was murdered and Hallie is determined to spend her ten day leave discovering who is responsible.
But there are obstacles in her way. Namely, the sheriff, Boyd, and her hometown friends who are convinced that Dell killed herself by wrapping her car around a tree. Hallie’s not buying it and she uses all her cunning, all the skills she’s acquired in the military to investigate her sister’s death and do it during her very brief leave.
The further she investigates Dell’s life prior to her death, the more secrets, lies and mysteries unfold. To complicate matters is her growing bond with Boyd and the odd weather patterns that seem to strike at will, damaging and killing with prejudice.
One could say that Hallie is an idealized feminist paradigm of what a female heroine can manage if given the room to stretch and grown. But Coates hasn’t written anything like that cliche. She’s crafted a story about a hero, a soldier, a fighter who happens to be female.
She has woven an intricate plot held together by characters that are dynamic and conflicts that are not easy to determine. Wide Open exhibits Coates’ heavily detailed research and personal experience that gives readers a story with not only heart, but gut.
Equal parts thriller and mystery with a unique supernatural bent, Wide Open will have readers clamoring for a re-read and with itchy fingers eager to get their hands on the next installment.
Highly recommended