aka YA Literature

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A Certain Slant of Light

Book: A Certain Slant of Light
Author: Laura Whitcomb
Narrator: Lauren Molina
Book Rating: A
Audio Rating: B

The Book:
Holy cow, I so loved this book. I know it was on ALA's BBYA list, so maybe I'm the only one who has been overlooking it thus far. But I just haven't read much about it on any of the YA or librarian blogs or discussion groups I follow, and it is so fantastic. Even though it's not just like Twilight, I plan to suggest this to people who like that book. It was so well-conceived, with so many great aspects and twists to the plot and so many depths. I thought the plot and characters were both incredibly well-developed. If I have any criticisms, it's that the number of similes were a bit distracting at times and I didn't think it was in character for James and Helen to jump into "bed" so quickly, even considering they'd been dead for years.

THE AUDIO

The Good:
Molina was a good choice for an adult who is in a teen's body. She was able to be both at the same time, somehow. She had good separate voices for most of the characters.

The Bad:
Somehow the narratorial voice was at "dramatic" for too much of the book. There was a little too much "quavering" going on, and there were some points where I thought Molina didn't quite portray the textual descriptions. I thought the performance was adequate but didn't add anything to the "experience." The discs didn't warn you when they came to an end, which I hate. :(

1 comment:

Texasholly said...

I also loved this book! I could not put it down. I was reading it at the ref desk on Saturday because I was near the end at it was so suspensful.
I think you should try to interview the author...