A review by dimcmill
The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Over all this is a good story but some things really bothered me. It seems like a small thing but the repeated use of the word "Ouch" by the main character to express complex pain and emotions annoyed the heck out of me.  Also, as a person that lives in Oregon, it was clear that the author had only visited. Wouldn't an editor chance the fact that we do not have thunderstorms very often during the summer in Western Oregon? Again, a small thing, but the thunderstorm was important to the plot and just didn't make sense.  I was also wasn't thrilled about the changing of history in regards to the only civilian deaths on the mainland during WWII (the bomb that killed Elsie Mitchell and five children was not from a plane but rather a balloon. It also did not occur near Brookings, but on Gearhart Mountain in South Central Oregon.). The author addresses this changes in and afterward and I do realize it is fiction, but to me it muddies a history that is already hidden in the murk of time. It also really bothered me that the wife of the Professor was written off so quickly as indecisive (by both the Professor and their daughter) when she was an artist and a human.
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