#SONGBIRD REVIEWS 2016 HOW TO#
#SONGBIRD REVIEWS 2016 FULL#

Overall, the author clearly knows how to write a book. It felt to me that the author was watching their word count instead of focusing on the drama. An example of this would be “I walked into the house, we had an argument, and I left.” I would have preferred to hear the argument. A slight inconvenience to the reader, but when you add this to the tendency of the author skipping meaningful discussions and replacing them with a quick sentence, it is worth mentioning.

This adds to our feelings of the main character not being reliable. Men are routinely beaten by others, and women get into physical fights, but it appears the author believes only a woman can be threatened sexually.įinally, the protagonist is blind, and there are a few scenes where she does describe actions that she couldn’t possibly see. Characters discuss past experiences where they witnessed the rape of women close to them, but no male character says they were raped. Rape is mentioned several times, and the main character herself is forced to it by other characters, but this is never spoken about being used against a man. If a woman is threatened in this book, it is immediately sexual. The author needs to understand that physical and sexual abuse are not gender exclusive. I kept waiting for a strong counter-argument to help even out the hatred towards Muslims and Mexicans, but it never appeared. I openly admit that due to the biased opinions expressed by certain characters, that there were passages in this book that were hard for me to read.

Through these stories, we get to see exactly how they remember these events accumulating over time and their final effects. Throughout the book, different characters fill in the blanks of the steps before the war, the hostile takeover, and the eventual end of freedom as we know it. The author clearly has some adamant opinions regarding a hypothetical future where America has fallen after a war with the Islamic State. Year of the Songbird is very relevant for our political climate and could be seen by some as a warning. Unfortunately the list of things I did not like far outweighed the enjoyment. Without exacting details acts of violence and love were fully exposed and explored without it being distracting or leaving me feeling distraught.

#SONGBIRD REVIEWS 2016 FULL#

I did feel the details were at the perfect pace to give a full picture. It is an intricate process and done well. Meeting new characters and for their presence to mean more due to an early moment makes it fun for the reader. Relationships formed during the early chapters cause reactions when new characters are introduced later.

I have to say my favourite part of the novel was the interconnectivity between characters. Lucky the story moves forward, and the language is easier to deal with once more diverse characters were introduced. It is worth struggling through those first few chapters. The language used is very advanced, and this might scare off some readers before they even get into the gut of the story. Unfortunately, my initial reaction after reading the first chapter was to give up. Year of the Songbird was suggested to me, and after reading the blurb, I thought that book was something I usually would be interested in reading. Her vocabulary stood in stark contrast with most everyone else she meets and it’s this dichotomy of language that helps her stand out as a character. I’ll be honest, at first it was a put-off but as I continued to read, I understood Madeline through her eloquence. She grows in knowledge and learns what the real world is like as she tries to survive. In doing so, she encounters a dark world she never understood before. Madeline is a young girl made curious to know of the outside world and thus starts her adventures away from the only home she ever knew. People do whatever they can to get by, often at the expense of others. Set after World War III, religious fervor and racism are rampant. The bleak world created by Bryan Caron is amazing and scary. “Year of the Songbird” is a superbly written post-apocalyptic story following the trials of young seventeen year-old Madeline of the Ark. Reviewer: Jason Nugent (PMC Book Reviewer) Total Book Rating (as of ): 4.17 Stars (out of 5)

Songbird reviews 2016