By Julie Berry
Genre YA fiction
Rating ⭐️⭐️
Synopsis
Judith disappeared for two years. She returned to her small town with her tongue cut out and unable to speak of where she's been. Her mother barely tolerates her presence, choosing instead to dote on Judith's brother Darrel. When their small town is attacked secrets about Judith's disappearance come to light. Now she must choose to stay quiet or find her voice and change her world forever.
First Sentence
You didn't come.
First off, I have to say how much I hate the cover of this book. I actually think it's an awesome cover for what the story is about except for a few details. The girl has like twenty pounds of eye liner on and looks like she's in the present. Not so. This book takes place back in like the 1600s-ish. Why couldn't they use a picture of a Puritan girl instead of this modern looking girl? Whatever. The book I read just had a flower on the front but I'd seen this cover and was shocked when I found out it wasn't modern.
So, yeah, this book isn't modern. Moving on.
I think this strange little story was trying so hard to be important. A book about silencing a woman and the harm it can cause. If it was going for that, I felt like it should have been modern after all and not so literal. Cutting out the MCs tongue was overkill (for that particular message) in my opinion.
The story was too long. It just kept meandering along and making me keep questioning WHY the MC wasn't telling her story? Did I miss something? Oh well. I read this one for book club. Maybe after our discussion I'll have some different insights. For now I just found it too long and trying a little too hard.
Should you read it
If you do, maybe don't think about it so hard.
I haven't finished it yet. I'm only 20% done with it. I'm going to give it 5% more to see if I can "get into it again" before FURIOUSLY HAPPY took my attention away from it. If I can't, I'm going to DNF it. But, so far, it's only a 2-star read for me as well.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don’t blame you. It’s a slower moving book.
DeleteAgreed!
ReplyDeleteYou’ve got my back!
DeleteI love Julie Berry! This isn't my favorite of hers, true, but I liked it. I agree with you on this cover, though -- it's very misleading. I was surprised by the time period, too.
ReplyDeleteI liked her other books better though my Goodreads reviews don’t show it.
DeleteNot sure if I'm going to read this, but I did enjoyed reading your review. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteThese books always frustrate me. You're writing a book to tell a story that needs to be told but you also have to know how to effectively deliver it to the audience. I'm really disappointed to hear that this book fell into the trap of only being decipherable in importance to it's author. It does sound like a worthwhile concept, though, so maybe I'll check out some of Julie Berry's other works. Lovely review, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
Right? Yeah her other books are just fun.
DeleteYeah, that's NOT the right cover for a historical fiction novel! And I'm sorry it wasn't a better read.
ReplyDeleteI know! It’s terrible.
DeleteI admit that cover doesn't seem to fit the story and I don't like it, too. Sounds like I'll have to give this book a miss.
ReplyDeleteYou’re not missing anything.
DeleteI'm not crazy about the cover either, and the fact that it looks modern but isn't... yeah that could be a problem. It totally looks modern (eye liner lol).
ReplyDelete