Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I finished listening to Finding Esme while cutting apples for applesauce this morning, and while I really am at a loss as to how to review it, I also need space on my library card–which means that rather then let the reading experience settle for a while before evaluating it, I’m rushing in regardless.

Wish me luck.

To begin, I am SO VERY TIRED of illustrators who create a cover for a book without any sense of what the book’s really like. You’d think Esme was a book with a spunky, inquisitive heroine who goes off in search of adventure, based on the cover, and that’s not at all how it feels. (Seriously, people. Tone. It’s not just for English majors.) Esme is gritty, grieving, and emotionally somewhat lost; she and her best friend are both struggling with difficult family situations and poverty, although Finch’s struggles are more stereotypical. Enter a mystical southern element–Esme’s grandmother can find things that are lost, things people are looking for, and Esme has started to feel that same gift within her. Add friendship difficulties, some moonshining, various levels of tragedy, and a slew of different kinds of people to deal with (and learn from), and you get a mix of a few too many themes in a single book that’s frequently heartbreaking and less about the found dinosaur bones than one might suppose from the description and first line. I’m not saying there isn’t a followable plot thread–there is–but it’s bumpy with varioius additions and subtractions. If you like poignant (although slightly scattered) stories involving difficult families, Finding Esme may be for you; if you’re looking for a tightly woven or adventurous story, probably not so much.

Your call.