Out of Nowhere

Rating:
Summary: Interesting And Unique
Review: OUT OF NOWHERE is quite different from most books that I've read over the past. It's not very well-known, but I went to my town's library one time and I saw this book on one of the racks and it caught my eye so I picked it up and decided to try it. Well, I did and it turned out to be very good. I never even realized I'd be interested in this kind of book, but as soon as I started to read it, I just couldn't put it down. I wanted to see what would happen at the end.

This book is full of emotions but with hardly any action. There are some humorous parts, but this is more like a serious book rather than comedy. Anyways, this book is about a 13-year-old boy named Harley who just got abandoned in an Arizona desert by his outgoing mother and her boyfriend. Soon, Harley comes across an abandoned dog, Ish, who he befriends. He also meets May, a woman in her late 40s, Singer, 16-year-old girl, and Bill, May's tenent. The five have their own problems they need to learn how to face.

This book was solidly written. If you're looking for a good book to read this summer, then go pick this one up. I highly recommend it for any teen.

Rating:
Summary: A place to belong
Review: The story of a lost kid wanting a family is hardly a new one, but Ouida Sebestyen infuses it with new life and new insights in "Out of Nowhere." Her solemn, stark book is a good read for both the lonely, and those who realistically want a better life for themselves.

Harley Nunn leaves, fed up with his ever-shifting life with his promiscuous trailer-trash mom and her constant flow of boyfriends, in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. He soon acquires a travelling companion, a pit bull called Ish, who was abandoned as Harley feels he has been; soon after, the two are given a ride by an elderly woman named May, who is trying to forge a new life for herself after her husband left her. Though she doesn't want the responsibility of a boy and a dog, she allows Harley to come with her to her run-down little house.

There they find a relentlessly Pollyannaish girl, Singer, who tells them that a junk-collecting drifter called Bill has been living -- and collecting junk -- in the house. Bill and May clash when he returns from the hospital (after setting his bedpan on fire to create a diversion while he escaped), with her ordering him to leave and him refusing. Singer offers philosophical advice, while Harley struggles with his lack of roots and his longing for even the vestiges of a home. But it seems that the collection of lost souls will never be able to exist in peace. Only a tragedy can give them the true soul of a family.

Every sitcom has brought up the concept that family is defined more by love than by blood. Sebestyen adds extra dimensions to this by producing a group of misfits -- not all of them get along, and more often than not they don't. But neither do they despise one another. The paths of Bill and May make it difficult to accept Harley, and Harley's past makes him increasingly desperate for love.

Harley is an unusually deep teenage character with a quietly likeable personality. Anyone who has felt alone or unloved -- or who HAS been alone or unloved -- will sympathize with his longing for someone to care about what happens to him. His outbursts as he realizes that nobody is going to keep him on are well-written, as are his feelings of guilt after Ish is injured. Singer is a little harder to care about, as Sebestyen seems to have tried a little too hard to make her relentlessly optimistic -- a few chinks in her armor would have made her seem more human and interesting. May is too similar to Harley for her own comfort, wounded by the loss of her lying husband and closed off emotionally, even to someone who needs her. Bill is the kindly curmudgeon, a cranky old guy who unconsciously becomes the paternal figure that Harley lacks. His almost comic stubbornness will win over most of the readers.

People who need continuous hijinks and action won't like this book -- the pace is gradual and attention is paid to the characters. Aside from a minor accident, it's all introspection drama, with a splash of comedy from time to time. Sebestyen's style is informative but kind of stark, with all the detail inside the characters' heads. She also does not lapse into the preachy "all you need is love to be a family" cliche, instead allowing the readers to draw their own conclusions from what happens to whom. As a result, the book's finale feels less like an end than like the climax of a very long beginning.

For a beautiful, carefully written story filled with likeably odd characters, readers can't do better than "Out of Nowhere." An excellent work of fiction for any age.

Rating:
Summary: Really Disappointing.
Review: When i picked up this book, i expected a heart-warming story about a boy that learns the value of life and realizes that he had a family all along. Well, That's not the case. In the beginning, A boy named Harley Nunn gets abandoned in the middle of the Arizona desert and witnesses a dog being left behind too. You'd think that the rest of the story would be about Harley finding a home and having a great life. But this idea is abandoned about 2 chapters into the book. He encounters an old woman that offers to take him back to where he came from. But, she takes him and the dog to her old house where a strange man is living. She kicks the man out and makes Harley clean her house for the rest of the book.