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Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

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emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Candy Gourlay's first novel is a solid proof how she, as an author, had improved over the years.

"It's not your fault, Bernardo," she sighed. "None of this is your fault. It's just bad luck."

Synopsis and/or Premise:
Andi, a tomboy and a basketball prodigy, wasn't expecting her Filipino half-brother, Bernardo, to be this lanky, 8-foot tall giant. Now that he had migrated to them in London, the stories of two unlikely half-siblings began to converge as they make sense of each other.

The Good and The Bad:
The author's unique writing style was a shining attribute in this novel. The way she uses superstitions as a driving force for her characters gave the book a prominent magical-realism quality. This was also true to her newer novels, although at a lesser extent. Her signatory penmanship gave simple, straightforward narratives some enhancing ✨ dazzle ✨.

The book had for major themes that were handled alright. First was Basketball 🏀. The book (especially Andi) was an enthusiast of the sport, and was reflective about the Filipino's love for it. Second was Family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦. Again, with the Filipino themes, the book successfully portrayed the importance of having someone to share your life and experiences genuinely. Third was Expectations 👀. It presented the readers how inhibiting it was for an individual adhering to others' expectations that he/she didn't ask for. Lastly was Guilt 😔. Feeling dispirited from repeatedly blaming oneself was such a relatable scenario.

Let's keep in mind that Candy Gourlay wasn't as experienced when she wrote this book. Many of these mistakes were due to amateur skills.

1. Tardy premise - I believed the blurb was extremely misleading ❌, but the more I thought about it the more I realize that there wasn't a better way to vaguely write a premise serving the plot. It had no choice but to let the promise of the book occur way too further within the story (past a third way of the book.)

2. Pandering - OMG 😮, I don't want to point this out but it was true. The book had too much 'Filipino' (and many were stereotypical) that it felt like straight pander. More nuance should have been implemented. But maybe that’s the point of this book (which’ll diminish its value.)

3. Too much topics - Despite being a short book, it was extremely crowded without good reason. The multiple themes within were treated superficially, thus many of which ended up half-cooked in execution 👎. I think the author was a little careless about adding content after content.

4. Not convincing - The plot writing was rushed and handled weakly. Due to its limitations, heavy moments weren't given much priority, thus not producing appropriate/enough emotional impact 💥. The narrative payoff wasn't satisfactory, and as a consequence, this made the book forgettable.

Final Thoughts:
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay is a two-perspective, middle grade, contemporary novel about two distant half-siblings finally joining a single household bringing their own personal stories. Fun fact, this was a personal record breaker by being my fastest full-length novel read 😁 (only 6 hours to complete.) Anyways, I found out that in the acknowledgement the author had several inspirations that were all integrated, and now I do see why the book was an inherent jumble. Now I'm just wondering...am I the exemption here? Many of the reviews were highly positive — which is good for them, I guess.

Rating: A middling 5/10

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