Title: I’ll Be There
Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan
# Of Pages: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Publication Date: May 17, 2011
Level: Young Adult
Rating: 3 Hearts
Synopsis
(From Amazon.com)
Sam Border wishes he could escape. Raised by an unstable father,
he's spent his life moving from place to place. But he could never abandon his
little brother, Riddle.
Riddle Border doesn't talk much. Instead, he draws pictures of
the insides of things and waits for the day when the outsides of things will
make sense. He worships his older brother. But how can they leave when there's
nowhere to go? Then everything changes. Because Sam meets Emily.
Emily Bell believes in destiny. She sings for her church
choir, though she doesn't have a particularly good voice. Nothing, she feels,
is mere coincidence. And she's singing at the moment she first sees Sam.
Everyone whose path
you cross in life has the power to change you--sometimes in small ways, and
sometimes in ways greater than you could have ever known. Beautifully written
and emotionally profound, Holly Goldberg Sloan's debut novel deftly explores
the idea of human connection.
My Verdict
The word that comes to mind when trying to describe this
book would be different, and maybe even a bit strange.
Main characters Emily and Sam cross paths one day when Sam
walks into a new church, where he sees Emily sing, directly to him. After this
the two share a brief conversation (if you could call “Hey” and “Hi” a
conversation) anyways the two supposedly “connect” during this moment before
Emily turns around and hurls into the bushes, and Sam runs away.
After this, Sam’s thoughts are consumed by Emily, and Emily
is consumed with finding Sam. This is where the story lost me, I didn’t really
understand their whole connection to one another, and if a whole book is going
to be about this couple that can’t live without each other than understanding
what draws them together is very important.
The story was written in a way I’ve never come across before
in YA literature. I believe it is called third-person subjective, which is when
the narrator conveys the thoughts, feelings, opinions, etc. of one or more
characters. In this case it was over a dozen characters. At first I didn’t mind
this style, but by the end of the book the author had us going into the minds
of every little side character, which got to be annoying.
Overall, while the story wasn’t great, I did enjoy it. My
biggest complaint would be the length. There were plenty of parts that weren’t
necessary to the story that I think should have been cut to help whittle it
down from it’s beastly total of 400 pages.
Glad that you enjoyed this book although you have some issues with it, Amanda! :) I got annoyed when we get to know about side characters' feeling too much. Oh well... there's a reason they call it side character. :P
ReplyDeleteAmazing review as always, Amanda! :)
Thanks for commenting Hilda! <3 I know, side characters are meant to be background. I don't need to know every one of their thoughts =P
DeleteWhoa, third person subjective over 12 characters? That does seem like it would get excessive. I'm glad you enjoy it overall though, been thinking about reading this book.
ReplyDeleteIt was fine at first but after like five characters it got to be too much. I would still give it a try if I were you, it might not bug you like it did me. My mom was crushed when she read my review because she loved this book so much!
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