For me, this reading challenge is about reading new books, broadening my horizons. It can be rather tricky finding books, as you ideally want an amazing reading experience every time, but obviously that's not going to be the case. When I'm stumped for what to chose for a challenge, I go to my "to-read" list on Goodreads, it's VERY long and this time I found this odd title; I can't even remember why I put it on the list. Probably because it sounds absolutely mad. It does, however, use the word "heroine" so I reckon it'll be good for this challenge. We shall see.
Here's the abstract, if anyone would like to read it:
"The Bigtree alligator wrestling dynasty is in decline--think Buddenbrooks set in the Florida Everglades--and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, is swiftly being encroached upon by a sophisticated competitor known as the "World of Darkness."
Ava, a resourceful but terrified twelve-year-old, must manage seventy gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Her mother, Swamplandia!’s legendary headliner, has just died; her sister is having an affair with a ghost called the Dredgeman; her brother has secretly defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their sinking family afloat; and her father, Chief Bigtree, is AWOL. To save her family, Ava must journey on her own to a perilous part of the swamp called the "Underworld," a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine."
Comments:
So this books was quite a bit different from what I expected! The alligator swamp setting was suitably weird, as were all the characters in the book. It did however get too dark for me, and I feel like I have to put a trigger warning (and SPOLIER ALERT! ---- Get ready!) for rape and pedophilia, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read the book if I had known that. I'm unconvinced that Ava, the main character, ends up a 'true heroine' but her plight and her dedication to both Swamplandia and her family was very convincing. All in all a book that sounded better than it turned out, although it stayed with me for quite some time after I had finished it.
Comments:
So this books was quite a bit different from what I expected! The alligator swamp setting was suitably weird, as were all the characters in the book. It did however get too dark for me, and I feel like I have to put a trigger warning (and SPOLIER ALERT! ---- Get ready!) for rape and pedophilia, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read the book if I had known that. I'm unconvinced that Ava, the main character, ends up a 'true heroine' but her plight and her dedication to both Swamplandia and her family was very convincing. All in all a book that sounded better than it turned out, although it stayed with me for quite some time after I had finished it.
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