First Fruits

Rating:
Summary: WOW, What a mind chilling story!!
Review: I loved this book so I'm rewriting a short review, since I already wrote one 3 weeks ago but it disappeared--I suppose--but that just falls in line with this strange and wierd but terrific story. This is a trip through a young teenaged girl's mind with all of her wierdness. This book will keep you turning pages and believe me, the ending is soooo surprising. This author has a magnificent imagination. I can not wait for the next book to come out. Read this book and join these young girls' pajama party....you won't forget it!! Keith Carr, the father, as well as the wicked grandmother are a bit on the strange side also.

Rating:
Summary: First Fruits by Penelope Evans
Review: Kate Carr at 14 lives in Scotland with her father, a preacher of the old puritan school. She is a lucky girl, the center of attention. We hope our own children can be like her. Not much scope for a good read here.... Not so.

Penelope Evans brilliantly recreates parallels with our own school day memories. Schools are the same the world over. There are people we recognize and perhaps still know. But no one will comfortably admit to being at this school.

Children can be manipulative and deceitful. Evans does not take the easy option of brutish teenage behaviour. Small pleasant acts can have great significance.

Why is Kate thinking and behaving like this? Somewhere there is a story of a lost past which is tantalizingly close to the surface. It comes with such power the reader is left stunned.

Rating:
Summary: A Chilling Story
Review: My review doesn't ruin anything for the potential reader: At first glance, the protagonist's (Kate) life seems perfect and the reader assumes her gripes are the usual teenage angst. As you read on you discover the subtle creepy undertone becomes more and more ominous and real. Being the constant center of attention isn't all it's cracked up to be - as Kate shows us. Her fundamentalist preacher father and bitter grandmother are the mak'ins of one scary a** family. Kate's grandmother is especially chilling once you discover what is REALLY going on. The fact that this novelist does not resort to a tabloid description but rather, uses subtle hints and slow reveal of the true nature of this family made it all the more frightening for me. There are so many layers and issues to this story which makes it a true work of art - I consider it a modern masterpiece. The whole novel is a mystery - the circumstances leading to Kate's crippled leg, the mother's disappearance and so on......Nothing is as it appears to be which includes Kate herself. The issues of religion, being a "good mother" or person for that matter, sex, concept of beauty, being part of the "in" crowd, self-confidence, manipulation, and love are all touched in this story. The end was a little too pat for me but didn't ruin the overall beauty of the storytelling. This work made me want to read everything else written by this author. No heavy handed writing or fad sensationalism here, just a pure gem regarding a heavy and disturbing subject.