AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Charley skedaddle characters8/31/2023 ![]() It is me being hurled forward in time to the empty spot at the head of my family. I know what this speeding ahead is without being told. “I am aware of a sudden force, as if I have been flung through space at the speed of a comet. The crescent sits like a bloody smile in the sky.” It appears low on the horizon above the smoke. I have seen it only in petunias and stained-glass windows.” Mauve is a pinkish purple of such delicacy I can only hold the silk square to the light and gaze at it. Then I cry, standing in the the street like a child with a skinned knee.” “I follow him down to Buckmarsh Street to catch a last glimpse of him. ![]() The best thing about this novel was the gems of language and writing that popped up when I was least expecting them. She also has a mildly feminist agenda, but it doesn’t become overbearing or preachy. Wells says in the back of the book that part of her purpose in writing it was to reveal “the profound immorality of war.” She goes on to say, “Sometimes we must fight wars, but it is unforgivable to pump war full of glamour and glory.” I’m no pacifist, but I agree with Ms. And the descriptions of the war, of battlefields and prisons, and of atrocities are accurate and chilling. Still, the narrator and main character, India, is a delightful young lady and role model. And the one of the characters has a suspiciously modern knowledge of medicine and chemistry and bacteriology that would have made him somewhat prescient in the mid 1800’s. I also found it difficult to believe that a young girl in the South during the war was able through a series of fortunate connections to obtain medicines (aspirin?) from Europe that would cure fever since aspirin wasn’t really invented until the late 1800’s. The “holes” involve minor characters, namely India’s baby brother and her elderly grandfather, who have a tendency to disappear when they might interfere with the action. In spite of a couple of holes in the plot, I thought Red Moon at Sharpsburg was one of the best Civil War novels written for young adults that I have read. The Moodys aren’t rich before the war begins, but they are comfortable with a home and a profitable business. It’s told from the point of view of a southern girl, India Moody, who lives in Northern Virginia with her family -her daddy, a harness maker, her mother, her little brother and her aged grandfather. Red Moon at Sharpburg is, as can be deduced, a Civil War novel. ![]() Wells has the ability to write and research and create a wstory and a world for young adults as vivid as the one created with very few words and pictures in her Max books. Filled with complex characters and a plot rich with intrigue, Charley's Web is Joy Fielding at her heart-skipping, mesmerizing best.I know Rosemary Wells, and maybe you do too, as the author of the Max and Ruby picture books for young children. As she discovers, this network of flawed but loving people might just be her only hope of getting out alive. As Charley races against time to save her family, she begins to understand the value of her seemingly intru-sive neighbors, friends, and relatives. Her path takes a twisted turn, however, when the anonymous letters she's recently received from an angry reader evolve into threats, targeting her son and daughter. Seeing this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Charley begins her jour-ney into the mind of this deeply troubled woman. Jill wants Charley to write her biography so that she can share the many hidden truths about the case that failed to surface during her trial. But when she receives a letter from Jill Rohmer, a young woman serving time on death row for the murders of three small children, her boundaries slowly begin to fade. She's spent years building an emotional wall against scathing critics, snooty neighbors, and her disapproving family. Charley Webb is a beautiful single mother who writes a successful and controversial column for the Palm Beach Post. New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Joy Fielding tells the story of an ambitious journalist whose foray into the mind of a killer puts her own family in jeopardy. All books from our inventory are good to like new condition, unless otherwise stated.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |