|| IF Book Club : The Next Chapter || - Page 21

Originally posted by: Anam...

I went into reading this book with no real expectations. Historical fiction is not a genre I have read much of. I sort of have a mental block when it comes to genres like historical fiction, fantasy and mythology. It just doesn’t seem the stuff I’d enjoy. The writing style was also something I was not too kicked about. I am used to reading fast paced thrillers which don’t have detailed descriptions.
When I read the first 60-70 pages I liked it but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to read the entire book with such detailed descriptions. The descriptive beginning was necessary to get a feel of the time and place where the book is set.

When it comes to the writing of this book, one thing that I wasn’t a big fan of were the poems. I’m not someone who can understand or appreciate poetry so I feel like I missed out on that bit when it comes to fully appreciating the book.

Same. I wish I could enjoy the poems.

Originally posted by: Anam...

Sorry girls, my internet was down.

Let’s start.
I’ll start with my opinions on the characters of Kya, Tate and Chase.

I liked Kya as a character. She was resilient despite being abandoned time and again by the people she loved and trusted. I’ll mention more about her when we come to the discussing the story.

I understood Tate’s position and his regret as well when he left Kya. He was written as an ideal good boy character in contrast to the character of Chase. At some level I think Chase did like/love Kya but he was a spoilt brat used to getting his way and he couldn’t come to terms with the fact that Kya didn’t want him in her life after she realised his intentions when it came to her.

@bold: I didin't feel like it was love at any point, but I agree, he did seem to like her at one point, if not romantically, then in a way someone will like something new, curious, different and interesting thing they had just found. He respected that she could survive alone in the wild for so long, curious about her hobbies of collecting samples, interested in her life that was so different to his own. I think it also played a part in his interest in her that at a young age as his, living in the marsh, and so isolated from town/city life must look adventurous. Being a part of it must be even more so. The fact that it was seen as some kind of a 'cool thing' by his peers due to the rumours regarding Kya would only have made him go back repeatedly, and her rejection would have hurt his ego.

When this book was announced as the club pick I didnt have a good opinion on it based on Goodreads reviews. Detailed descriptions and poetry are not things that I enjoy reading. I was kinda surprised after I finished reading. Leaving aside the descriptions and the poetry I liked it. The chapters which were about Kya were better than the investigation ones. I really liked Kya. You could see how aloof she was but also feel what she was feeling. Ill admit I cried a little when the entire town showed up for her funeral. This book taught me not to go by GR reviews all the time. I give it 3 stars.

Originally posted by: 23Diya

@bold: I didin't feel like it was love at any point, but I agree, he did seem to like her at one point, if not romantically, then in a way someone will like something new, curious, different and interesting thing they had just found. He respected that she could survive alone in the wild for so long, curious about her hobbies of collecting samples, interested in her life that was so different to his own. I think it also played a part in his interest in her that at a young age as his, living in the marsh, and so isolated from town/city life must look adventurous. Being a part of it must be even more so. The fact that it was seen as some kind of a 'cool thing' by his peers due to the rumours regarding Kya would only have made him go back repeatedly, and her rejection would have hurt his ego.

Agree. I felt like he didnt love her. He fancied her. I dont think she loved him either.

Originally posted by: Anam...

I went into reading this book with no real expectations. Historical fiction is not a genre I have read much of. I sort of have a mental block when it comes to genres like historical fiction, fantasy and mythology. It just doesn’t seem the stuff I’d enjoy. The writing style was also something I was not too kicked about. I am used to reading fast paced thrillers which don’t have detailed descriptions.
When I read the first 60-70 pages I liked it but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to read the entire book with such detailed descriptions. The descriptive beginning was necessary to get a feel of the time and place where the book is set.

When it comes to the writing of this book, one thing that I wasn’t a big fan of were the poems. I’m not someone who can understand or appreciate poetry so I feel like I missed out on that bit when it comes to fully appreciating the book.

@italics: The reviews on Goodreads and here were not very encouraging. And when I started reading, I liked it from the beginning but there were a ton of new words (nature related) that I had to keep googling. I thought the whole book was going to be like this. Thankfully it wasn't or it wouldn't have been as enjoyable.

@bold: Same with me as well.

I feel so sad for tate and kya🥺

Originally posted by: Unique.Sheep

I feel so sad for tate and kya🥺

Why?

At least they got a happy ending. 😃

The one thing that bothered me a lot of times while reading the book (entirely non-story related thing) is the abrupt change of POV within the same scene. This is something that I don't like in any story, and in this book, it happened a lot.

Another was the sudden change of narrative tense but at least that happened only once.

These things can be really jarring when you're in the flow of the story. When the POV changed, I had to go back and read the sentence again to make sense of it because at the time of reading it the first time I was thinking of it being from one character's perspective, and then at the end of the para, found out that it was actually someone else's.

As for the murder mystery, don’t you girls think it was handled very similarly to To Kill A Mockingbird? Only here, the accused is white whereas the one accused there was Black.

I liked the investigative part of the story, the pages really flew by while reading that bit.

Am I the only one who absolutely adored this story? My rating is 5/5. Long descriptions of nature and day to day life of the protagonist can be uninteresting but imo, it was much needed for this book. I really could understand the level of love Kya held for her home and Biology.

As we are discussing spoilers now, I really wanted Amanda Hamilton to be her mother. Her mother's books and Kya developing a relationship with those books were shown plenty of times that A.H turning out to be herself was a bit of a disappointment. I can totally see why the poet being Kya is relevant to the story but really? It didn't have much of an impact on me. I would have rather preferred Kya's mother. It would have been a nice touch where throughout her teenage years when she felt abandoned the most, her mother's poems were always with her. Poems are very personal so in a way, she could have known her mother. I don't care for poetry either but the constant mention of A.H did make it obvious that this part was important so I did read through.