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Cordelia Jensen

Auteur de Skyscraping

4 oeuvres 195 utilisateurs 5 critiques

Œuvres de Cordelia Jensen

Skyscraping (2015) 92 exemplaires
Every Shiny Thing (2018) 54 exemplaires
The Way The Light Bends (2018) 48 exemplaires
Gökyüzüne Tutunurken (2017) 1 exemplaire

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The beauty of this book caught me off guard. Linc's isolation from her own family and friends was palpable. Her photography (mind camera) descriptions were vivid and beautiful.
 
Signalé
readingbeader | 2 autres critiques | Oct 29, 2020 |
Virtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents' daughter biologically, it's smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who exemplifies the family's high-achieving model of academic success.

Linc is desperate to pursue photography, to find a place of belonging, and for her family to accept her for who she is, despite her surgeon mother's constant disapproval and her growing distance from Holly. So when she comes up with a plan to use her photography interests and skills to do better in school--via a project based on Seneca Village, a long-gone village in the space that now holds Central Park, where all inhabitants, regardless of race, lived together harmoniously--Linc is excited and determined to prove that her differences are assets, that she has what it takes to make her mother proud. But when a long-buried family secret comes to light, Linc must decide whether her mother's love is worth obtaining.

The Way the Light Bends by Cordelia Jensen. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35628592-the-way-the-light-bends.
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Signalé
MRS1973 | 2 autres critiques | Oct 20, 2019 |
So, I'm not big on books about art students. The problem starts because art student characters tend to have this pretentiousness that other characters don't and I've never seen an art student character thats different from the rest of them. Despite that, the adoption factor of this story really made me want to read it so I picked it up anyway.

I usually don't like the writing in poetry-poetry novels but this as an exception. Jensen is an amazing writer and I was engrossed in her words (if not the plot) as soon as I started. Everything smoothly transitioned from one place to another and I didn't find it choppy like I usually do with books like these.

As for the characters, I didn't like them. Linc was your cookie cutter art student who wasn't good enough for her family and constantly berated them for not liking her art. Here's the thing, Linc was in a very rigorous school. Rigorous schools have a rigorous academic program. Her parent didn't hate her photography, she was just bad at all her other classes which are needed to do to graduate high school. I don't really know why it was such a big deal about her dropping out because she definitely wasn't flourishing in her academic space. Holly and the mother were very interesting characters but weren't as fleshed out as I'd like them to be. I spent a lot of this book being discontent with Linc.

As for the plot, it was initially intriguing but the narration threw me off. Linc made a lot of poor decisions that were not at all justified so I truly felt no pity for her. The book tried to introduce some racial tension but most of the time it was weird and unrealistic. The way the book talked about race sort of felt like it was being explained to a kindergartener. The love story was forced and unnecessary. There were a lot of plot twists but they were so overshadowed with Linc's perpetual angst that I couldn't give them the attention they needed. This novel could have had a better execution.

Final Thoughts: Read for the nice prose.

(This review was originally published on https://willreadanything.wordpress.com
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Signalé
willreadanything | 2 autres critiques | May 23, 2018 |
In this beautifully constructed middle-grade novel, told half in prose and half in verse, Lauren prides herself on being a good sister, and Sierra is used to taking care of her mom. When Lauren’s parents send her brother to a therapeutic boarding school for teens on the autism spectrum and Sierra moves to a foster home in Lauren’s wealthy neighborhood, both girls are lost until they find a deep bond with each other. But when Lauren recruits Sierra to help with a Robin Hood scheme to raise money for autistic kids who don’t have her family’s resources, Sierra has a lot to lose if the plan goes wrong. Lauren must learn that having good intentions isn’t all that matters when you battle injustice, and Sierra needs to realize that sometimes, the person you need to take care of is yourself.

Out April 2018

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Another gorgeous cover. I hope they use it on their final copy.

Absolutely perfect. The alternating between characters, one POV written in prose and the other, in verse, was such a unique method of writing. I’ve never seen it before now in a middle-grade level, and I’ve never been drawn to stories told in verse before like I was with “Every Shiny Thing.”

Sierra’s POV is written via verse, and, Lauren’s is written in prose. Each have their own family issues and problems and are developed nicely as the plot progresses moving in and out of sub-plots, twists and turns. The pace is helped along via the alternating POV and you get to see inside each girl’s mind clearly and with a precision that develops their character arcs smoothly and pushes them towards their final goals expertly.

This book will generate a wide range of emotions. You will feel horrible for Sierra’s situation and understand Lauren’s anger and frustration at losing her older special needs brother. It’s a hard thing for siblings to understand adult decisions and often struggle with the end result to choices being made for them. This is clearly defined in both Sierra’s and Lauren’s families.

Each girl faces a moral dilemma that has to be resolved, each girl has been drawn to the other because of what’s happening in their respective lives. There is a need for mutual support and understanding that only the girls can provide to one another. Subjects surrounding shop lifting, lying and stealing are addressed wonderfully and I’m glad to see such topics being covered in middle-grade novels because there is very little materials on these subjects out there right now.

The authors’ voices are sensitive and authentic and flows ideally throughout the story. The conflict and tension is well-placed and dealt with successfully as the book progresses toward plot climax resolution and conclusion.

This book is realistic in setting and situation. The momentum of the written prose will keep you turning pages right up to the end and the verse will keep you emotionally engaged. I loved, loved, loved this book.

Some may argue that it’s too long, but I believe because of the style of writing used, the length of the book was necessary for the story to unfold perfectly and conflict to be resolved properly. In fact, I really can’t find anything to complain about, except to say I was sad when the last page was turned.
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Signalé
JLSlipak | Apr 6, 2018 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
4
Membres
195
Popularité
#112,377
Évaluation
3.9
Critiques
5
ISBN
13
Langues
1

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