Little Book Bird

It seems I’m in the minority once again, because I didn’t like this book. 

In the beginning I was annoyed by Hannah’s character, seeing her as someone more vindictive than anything and wanting to play the blame game. Later on she does admit that taking her life is her choice and I did see her character as someone who wasn't doing it for those types of reasons. But I still…just couldn’t bring myself to like this book. I don’t feel like doing a detailed review on this book, but I feel the need to point out some reasons why I gave it such a low rating. 

The writing is amateur and boring. I also had a difficult time keeping up with Hannah’s tape and Clay interrupting it for some needless action. It did not transfer well and was more frustrating than anything. 

Why would you continue to pass on a tape that exposed a rapist, just so you can keep your little rumor secret? Seriously? You would think someone of minor offensives would let the tapes be sent out in order to expose that, but no. That doesn’t make any sense to me. 

I didn’t like Hannah’s character. Look, I’m not going to say why someone would or wouldn’t take their life. We’re all different and respond to situations differently. But her character doesn’t come across as someone who has depression. Maybe it’s the lack of development shown in the book, but I just couldn’t buy it. Come to think of it, I didn't like any of the characters. They all fell flat to me. 

Um, why was Clay even in those tapes? He did nothing wrong. Leave him a note or something explaining stuff if you want to say you’re sorry. No need to torture the kid. 

I get what the book is trying to say. Words hurt. Actions hurt. What you do matters and effects people even when you don’t realize it. If you’ve been hurt, talk to someone, don’t take your life. I heard the message the book was trying to say, but I didn't think it did a good job saying it. Wouldn't recommend. 

Summary

The entire theme is that even monsters have a story. This one is set within a prison and told by a inmate on death row. We also see stories from York, a prisoner with his execution date nearing, and the lady (an investigator) who falls in love with the priest. There is no other way to describe this book other than that it’s a dark tale from a unstable perspective.  

Pros

• Overall I mostly enjoyed the writing style. I have a little nitpick about it that I’ll mention in the cons, but I still did like it. It was poetic and had a good flow to it. One that gave enough detail to paint a picture but not too much as to overwhelm the reader. It had a good balance.

• The perspective and theme to this story is so unique and is my favorite part of the book. You don’t see a lot of books like this, touching on such a darker side of humanity, and doing it with such magical like etiquette. This is the entire reason I picked up the book in the first place.

• A few times while reading I stopped to think, and that’s a good thing. There are little thought provoking lines in there that seem to effortlessly placed. A job well done in that aspect.

Cons

• The narrating is a bit confusing. I wasn’t clear if it was the inmate was narrating the entire time (and thus probably improvising/making up much of the story) or if it switched to an omniscient viewpoint to tell the lady and priest’s story.

• The similes were overdone at times. Sometimes they just felt out of place or forced, and sometimes I didn’t even get what was trying to be described. The writing itself even felt…forced at times. As if it was trying to be grand while that’s just something that should happen.

• My biggest con about this book is that it just got boring. I was basically skimming at the end just to be able to finish it. There was no push for me to want to finish the book. I didn’t care about what happened to the characters, and I want a book to make me care. It fell flat for me. I just didn’t care despite how much I wanted to, which is a real shame; because this was one I was really looking forward to reading. I felt like more could have been done.

I would recommend to

Anyone who wants something different to read. This is a decent short read with a unique perspective. If you’re wanting something different, and darker, to read, this would be it. The warning I have is it does deal in some heavy issues like abuse and rape and so forth. While it doesn't go into excessive details it's definitely not glossed over, so such things may be unappealing or trigger provoking for sensitive audiences. 

Final verdict

It was okay. I didn’t not like and I didn’t love it, it was just okay. If it sounds interesting to you and you want to pick it up, great, do so! But if it doesn’t sound like your type of read you’re not missing out on anything fantastic.

I’m not into reading romance novels, and this is, to my memory, the first I’ve ever read. The only reason I read it was because it was recommended to me. To my surprise, I actually quite enjoyed this book. There were some details I didn't favor, but overall it was a beautiful, brutally honest story of redemption.

Redeeming Love is a retelling of the book of Hosea, and follows a prostitute as she marries (out of no other choice, really) a farmer named Michael Hosea. She keeps running away from him, and he keeps fighting for her back, but in the end they both have to let go in order to heal. One thing to note, this book is not for sensitive audiences. It’s not a gushy romance story, it’s a story that deals with issues like rape and betrayal and pain. But I like books that are real, books that touch on horrible things, because that’s just reality and sometimes reality sucks. I don't like it when books just gloss over or candy coat things, so the honesty was appreciated. 

Now, into my nitpicking. First thing—I don't like the viewpoint. I’m all down for having multiple povs, but not with every other paragraph or even sentence at times. One minute I’m in Angels head, the next I’m in Michaels, and there’s not even a proper break for it. I mean, sometimes there was, and sometimes there wasn't. That was annoying at times. I know limited omniscient viewpoint is a thing, but apparently it's not my thing. 

I’m also not personally a big fan on the whole God speaking and then the dark voice speaking. Then again, I don’t really like inner dialogue in general as I rarely find it done well. But as the book went on I got use to the voices and it just became apart of how the story was told. They weren't exactly intrusive, and I appreciate that it wasn’t ALL the time. So I’m kind of eh on how I feel about it.

Overall, I still really enjoyed this book. And this is coming from someone who is not a fan of the romance genre.