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A review by mindfullibrarian
Pieces of Blue by Holly Goldberg Sloan
2.0
(free review copy) Sigh. This was one of my most anticipated May releases based on the premise and the fact that I love the author's middle grade works. But this book is honestly a mess. It started out fairly strong, although I instantly became wary with completely random narration changes becoming more frequent after a bit. Sloan wrote the youngest child the best and I wonder if perhaps this had actually been written as a middle grade novel narrated by this kid if it would been more successful? It would 100% have been better if only narrated by the mother, Lindsey, at least, rather than hopping all over the place.
The first half though was fairly decent - I can put up with a lot of literary flaws in service of a decent story, so I was waving stuff off until I just couldn't any more. With about 1/3 of the book left, the male narrators were introduced and they were so jarringly different from everyone else, it pulled me out of the story. And then some weird intrigue / drama stuff was introduced that I hated and then cue BIG ACTION SEQUENCE and an incredibly weak, rushed ending. This book needed a much better editor, or another 5 rounds of edits to possibly pull it together.
And then there's the problematic thing I was a little unsure of from the very beginning. Writing a white family moving to Hawaii is always a red flag to me, and although I acknowledge that Sloan did seem to nod at recognizing the damage that colonialism has done to the islands, it just never felt right to me. Also, two of the kids' names are examples of cultural appropriation, and Sloan even recognizes that in the story! I don't really understand why that was done on purpose?
Here is the Kirkus review for a more professional explanation of my plot issues. This Publishers Weekly review is what made me think I needed to read this book, and the review seems to be talking about an entirely different story. I'm disappointed by it, but also many of the other reviews here are glowing, as are some elsewhere, so it may just be me??
All in all, I hope to read much more wonderful middle grade from the author and I hope should the adventures in adult lit continue, much more editing is done.
Source: digital review copy via Edelweiss
The first half though was fairly decent - I can put up with a lot of literary flaws in service of a decent story, so I was waving stuff off until I just couldn't any more. With about 1/3 of the book left, the male narrators were introduced and they were so jarringly different from everyone else, it pulled me out of the story. And then some weird intrigue / drama stuff was introduced that I hated and then cue BIG ACTION SEQUENCE and an incredibly weak, rushed ending. This book needed a much better editor, or another 5 rounds of edits to possibly pull it together.
And then there's the problematic thing I was a little unsure of from the very beginning. Writing a white family moving to Hawaii is always a red flag to me, and although I acknowledge that Sloan did seem to nod at recognizing the damage that colonialism has done to the islands, it just never felt right to me. Also, two of the kids' names are examples of cultural appropriation, and Sloan even recognizes that in the story! I don't really understand why that was done on purpose?
Here is the Kirkus review for a more professional explanation of my plot issues. This Publishers Weekly review is what made me think I needed to read this book, and the review seems to be talking about an entirely different story. I'm disappointed by it, but also many of the other reviews here are glowing, as are some elsewhere, so it may just be me??
All in all, I hope to read much more wonderful middle grade from the author and I hope should the adventures in adult lit continue, much more editing is done.
Source: digital review copy via Edelweiss