The Land of Decoration
Author: Grace McCleen
ISBN: 9400000114676
Pages: 291
I purchased this book for the cover. The girl sitting in a house caught my attention. The back cover reads:
In the beginning there was an empty room, a little bit of space, a little bit of light, a little bit of time. I said: "I am going to make fields," and I made them from table mats, carpet, brown corduroy and felt. Then I made rivers from crepe paper, cling film and shiny tinfoil and mountains from paper mache and bark. And I looked at the fields and I looked at the rivers and I looked at the mountains and I saw they were good.
The only part of this book that I enjoyed was the girls land, that she makes from anything she can find. The imagination, this writer has for making this land, is awesome.
I am sorry to write my first review of a book that I really didn't enjoy. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't read it, as we all enjoy different things about books. Have a look at Goodreads there is a real mix of reviews and opinions on this one. Anyway, why didn't it grab me? The father really got on my nerves! The whole story centres on his bashing of the end times. I felt so much for the 10 year old girl that seemed to never get heard and along with that she got bullied. No wonder she retreated to her room and built a land of her own.
I also didn't attach to the voice of the narrative. It is written from the perspective of the 10 year old girl with a 10 year old voice. I couldn't get past the feeling I was reading a really long picture book with no pictures. Having said this, there are a lot of comments on the voice of this novel on Goodreads. I really recommend you read through these instead of just taking my opinion. I don't like writing a review at the expense of an author as she has written a good story here... I just isn't me .
This was available from Fishpond and Book depository:
http://www.bookdepository.com/Land-Decoration-Grace-McCleen/9780099565741
No comments:
Post a Comment