The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Challenge #33 ~ “A book that is connected to a word or phrase born in the same year as you: date-rape.”

mockingbirds

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

I’ll admit that this wasn’t quite the story I was expecting it to be, mainly because the tone was much more mature than I would have thought for a ‘secret society at boarding school’ king of novel – not that this was at all a bad thing for the subject matter! What lost it its stars, I would say, was the strange sideplot with Martin, and the lack of enticement to keep reading (particularly when the focus was on the Martin elements). Poignant and superbly written, though – as books on this subject go, this is by far not a terrible work.

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

Whitney’s tone was superb for such a book. I’ll admit that I was half-expecting more of a middle grade book packed with giggly young teenage girls delving into something out of their depth, but what I got was a mature and sophisticated exploration with some real poignant points.

A warning for the book:

I thought Whitney had it nailed, but there were a couple of odd choices for side plots and a lack of driving momentum that sorely detracted from a really great exploration of the themes. It’s a real shame that cost two stars of rating – for what could have been a perfect book from tone, character and literary expression, the lack of read-on-ability was torturous.

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